«Let those who are in favour with their stars Of public honour and proud titles boast». In Sonnet 25, which has as its theme mortality versus immortality, the poet contrasts himself with those “who are in favor with their stars,” implying that, though he is […]
Archivi Giornalieri: 18 Ago 2023
14 articoli
«Mine eye hath play’d the painter and hath stell’d Thy beauty’s form in table of my heart». When the poet writes in Sonnet 24 of finding “where your true image pictured lies,” he focuses on a meaning of “true” in the sense of genuine as […]
«As an unperfect actor on the stage Who with his fear is put besides his part». Most of Sonnet 23 compares the poet’s role as a lover to an actor’s timidity onstage. The image of the poor theatrical player nervously missing his lines is the […]
«My glass shall not persuade me I am old, So long as youth and thou are of one date». Until now, the poet’s feelings have soared to the level of rapture; in Sonnet 22, he suggests — perhaps deluding himself — that his affections are […]
«So is it not with me as with that Muse Stirr’d by a painted beauty to his verse». Having explored the nature of his and the young man’s relationship in the previous sonnet, the poet now returns to his theme of immortality. Not only does […]
«A woman’s face with Nature’s own hand painted Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion». In this crucial, sensual sonnet, the young man becomes the “master-mistress” of the poet’s passion. The young man’s double nature and character, however, present a problem of description: Although to […]
«Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws, And make the earth devour her own sweet brood». In Sonnet 19, the poet addresses Time and, using vivid animal imagery, comments on Time’s normal effects on nature. The poet then commands Time not to age the young […]
«Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate». One of the best known of Shakespeare’s sonnets, Sonnet 18 is memorable for the skillful and varied presentation of subject matter, in which the poet’s feelings reach a level of […]
«Who will believe my verse in time to come, If it were fill’d with your most high deserts?». In the earlier sonnets, the poet’s main concern was to persuade the youth to marry and reproduce his beauty in the creation of a child. That purpose […]
«But wherefore do not you a mightier way Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time?». Sonnet 16 continues the arguments for the youth to marry and at the same time now disparages the poet’s own poetic labors, for the poet concedes that children will ensure […]
«When I consider every thing that grows Holds in perfection but a little moment,». In Sonnet 15‘s first eight lines, the poet surveys how objects mutate — decay — over time: “. . . every thing that grows / Holds in perfection but a little […]
«Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck; And yet methinks I have astronomy,». Sonnet 13 depends on an intimate relationship between the poet and the young man that is symbolized in the use of the more affectionate “you”; Sonnet 14 discards — at […]
«O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are No longer yours than you yourself here live». Sonnet 13 furthers Sonnet 12’s theme of death by again stating that death will forever vanquish the young man’s beauty if he dies without leaving a child. Sonnet […]
«When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night». Sonnet 12 again speaks of the sterility of bachelorhood and recommends marriage and children as a means of immortality. Additionally, the sonnet gathers the themes of […]