Although Shakespeare's sonnets are frequently read and quoted as individual poems, they are linked together in series form by a number of recurring themes and characters, such as example the characters of the young man and the black lady, and the themes of beauty, love and time. The question of time elicits a number of conflicting feelings from the speaker; Throughout the sonnets, it becomes clear that time – or rather Time as a personified being – is something that deeply concerns the speaker, largely due to its anticipated effects on the youthful beauty of his love . Throughout the sonnets, we see the speaker attempting to make sense of and come to terms with his deep-rooted fear of time. Although many of Shakespeare's sonnets deal with this issue of trying to escape the effects of Time, Sonnet 19 and Sonnet 123 in particular reflect the speaker's fear as well as his desire to defy and overcome the effects of Time. Time by speaking directly to him. this oppressive and destructive character that the speaker has created. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay Through the sonnets, particularly the early sonnets centered on the character of the young man, the speaker paints a portrait of Time as a destructive time, a tyrannical force that poses an imminent threat to the beauty of his love. For example, in Sonnet 15, the speaker refers to "wasted time" (line 11) and a "war against time for your sake" (line 13) – the "you" presumably being the young man of whom these first speeches speak. center of poems. In the next sonnet he again refers to this notion of war against time, as he writes: "But why don't you make a more powerful way / Don't you make war on that bloody tyrant, Time ? » (lines 1-2). In all of these cases, it is clear that the images that the speaker associates with Time are those of destruction and decadence, particularly in reference to its effects on the young man and his beauty. However, he does not just lament the passage of time and the inevitable changes it brings; instead, it presents Time as an antagonistic character who seems to be consciously and intentionally opposed to everything the speaker holds dear - namely the beauty of the man to whom the poems are addressed - and thus transforming the abstract notion of time into a clear notion. and tangible against which he must fight. In doing so, the speaker grants immense power to the character of Time, while simultaneously attempting to find ways to undermine that power and, in doing so, immortalize the object of his love. The sonnets thus serve as an attempt on the part of the speaker to counteract the destructive effects of Time. He clearly states that there are only two ways to preserve what time seeks to destroy: reproduce and write. In the verse that ends Sonnet 12, he writes: "And nothing against the scythe of Time can make defense / Save the race, to brave it when it takes you hence" (lines 13-14), indicating that the only way to go against the destruction of beauty by Time is to perpetuate the lineage and transmit its beauty. This theme of reproduction is central to many early sonnets; the speaker makes his belief very clear that the young man must reproduce, lest his beauty be lost forever. Later, the speaker also introduces a second method of defense, despite his assertion in Sonnet 12 that there is no defense against time "that saves the race." In Sonnet 63 he writes that “Her beauty will bevisible in these black lines, / And they will live, and he will always be green in them” (lines 13-14). Here he references a theme that is woven into many early sonnets: the idea that, through writing, a person's beauty can be preserved. Through this and several similar statements that appear in other sonnets, the speaker presents his own writing as a method of immortalizing the subjects of his work, and in this way the sonnets as a whole become a kind of struggle against Time and its destructive nature. However, perhaps the speaker's most assertive attacks on Time are found in Sonnet 19 and Sonnet 123, in which he directly addresses Time as a character. In many other sonnets the speaker uses personifying imagery such as his reference to "the wounding hand of time" (line 2) in Sonnet 63 and his remark that "Time will come and take away my love" (line 12 ) in Sonnet 64. to create a character out of Time that has motive, action, and power, and in sonnets that he addresses Time directly, the speaker begins to respond to that character that he has created. The first of these is Sonnet 19, which begins with the line "Devouring time, blunts the lion's paws" (line 1), and continues in its direct address to the character Time throughout the sonnet. The speaker begins by entrusting all nature to the hands of Time; he commands Time: “Pluck the sharp teeth from the jaws of the fierce tiger, / And burn the long-lived phoenix in his blood; / Make seasons glad and sad while thou art on the run, / And do what thou wilt, Swift-footed Time, / To the wide world and all its faded sweetness” (lines 3-7). Here the speaker offers a concession in exchange for the demands he continues to make, for at the end of the opening quatrain the speaker "forbids" Time's domination of one thing: his love. This address to Time is very different from the many references to time made by the speaker in the other sonnets in that it does not lament Time as inevitable nor suggest to a third party a defense against it; here, he openly faces Time and asserts a domination over it that we, readers, immediately recognize as futile. The speaker, it seems, soon realizes this as well, for the final verse begins "Yet do your worst old time" (line 13), recognizing that Time, despite the speaker's demands , will do what he wants without worrying about time. wishes of the speaker. In this line, the speaker both recognizes the inevitability of Time and challenges it to do what it wants. The speaker goes on to find consolation in an idea present in many sonnets; he will immortalize his love through his writings, for he says: “despite your wrong, / My love in my verses will live forever young” (lines 13-14). In this sonnet, the speaker therefore seems to both negotiate, demand and accept the power of this character of Time to whom he so strongly opposes. In this apparent contradiction, we see the speaker grappling with his feelings about Time and struggling to assert his power over it, ultimately coming to the conclusion that while he can do nothing to prevent the passage of time, he can try to preserve his love through time. his writing. The speaker ends this sonnet by finding some semblance of power in his writing and, as much as he can, remains defiant of Time by asserting that his verse will allow his love to "live forever young" despite all that Time can do. TO DO. The speaker maintains a more consistent and assertive address to time in Sonnet 123, which begins, “No!” Time, you won’t brag that I’m changing” (line 1). Here, unlike.