Sonnets are traditionally poems of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter. They often adhere to a Shakespearean, Petrarchan, or Spenserian rhyme scheme, or they may contain a mixture known as the diaspora rhyme scheme. Often, sonnets deal with topics such as mortality, love, time, and nostalgia and feature a shift known as a volta in which the point of view or tone changes. In this case, the themes of love and lack of time are explored through the sonnets “His Portrait,” “Sonnet 19,” and “I Ask My Mother to Sing.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Jean Blewett's first sonnet, "Her Portrait," does not fit into a conventional form, although it begins as a Shakespearean sonnet and contains fourteen lines. Interestingly, the volta appears after line eight, at which point the poem begins to deviate from the traditional Shakespearean rhyme scheme. The Volta is marked by a shift from a past memory to the present. Quite literally, “Her Portrait” is about a painting of a young child and how it has endured over time. Yet through metaphor, color imagery, and the contrast between time and preservation, Blewett demonstrates the way love imprints things in our memory. The sonnet begins by describing a little girl who has been painted “on the wall of dull and gray memory” (Blewett 1-3). In these opening lines, the painter is Love, a metaphor for a person who loves his muse so much that he can remember her even when all other memories become blurred. The meticulous care with which a person paints a face parallels the way a person observes every detail of the person they love. Despite the bleakness of the narrator's life, the young girl remains a beacon of youth and happiness preserved forever in his memory. This idea of ​​endless love is also demonstrated through color images. While reality is dull and gray, the “golden curls” and “changing blush” of the girl in the painting remain vibrant through time (4-6). This is largely representative of how the narrator views his life, a life that really had no meaning or spark, except for those moments with the young girl whose eyes "light up the dull, gray wall of memory" (14 ). There are also clear contrasts in the sonnet. In the painting, there is a sense of movement described as that of “brown, bold sparrows fluttering up to his feet” (8). This is sharply contrasted in the next sentence, which says that the painting “is still there” (9). The dichotomies within the poem are also apparent in the way time continues to move and continue while a painting always remains constant. Even though a lot of time has passed since the portrait was first painted, it remains exactly as it was that day, just as the narrator's memory of her remains perfectly intact. And unlike the young girl whose “soft lips hold back their smile and can quiver,” the narrator is so old that his life has become a blur of grayness (12). Ironically, a painting, something unchanging and immobile, becomes a more vivid and beautiful representation of the narrator's life than his actual life. This sonnet is filled with incredible nostalgia and sadness. Ultimately, Jean Blewett's "His Portrait" is about a man who loved a young girl so much that all other memories are dimmed in relation to her and hissharp mind. In the next poem, "Sonnet 19" by William Shakespeare, the narrator begs time not to interfere with his lover's beauty. Like all Shakespearean sonnets, it is composed of fourteen lines and has a rhyme scheme “abab/cdcd/efef/gg”. And in the same way, it addresses the universal themes of love and time. Ultimately, through personification, imagery, and a pointed motif, Shakespeare expresses his desire to keep his lover from growing old so that they can stay together forever. From the first line of the poem, the narrator addresses the character of Time and personifies him as a creature that devours everything in its wake. This largely parallels the lions and tigers described in the next few lines. Yet Time is even more deadly than these beasts because it has the power to “blunt the paws of the lion” and “to tear the sharp teeth from the jaws of the fierce tiger” (Shakespeare 2-4). And beyond that, Time is more powerful than Mother Nature, who is also personified, seen in the way that Time can "make the earth devour its own brood" as well as determine which seasons will be happy or sad - a fact which you would think would be left to Mother Nature. (2). Time is personified again later in the sonnet when the narrator begs that he not dig lines or wrinkles into his lover's forehead, demonstrating his desire to keep his lover young forever. The vivid animal images of “Sonnet 19” are also a powerful tool for conveying the force of Time. In Shakespeare's descriptions, Time removes the claws and teeth of some of the most powerful animals, largely the parts that make these animals so powerful in the world. first place. It is through this description that we understand how Time affects humans. Just as it removes the most mortal parts of animals, it deprives men of their faculties and their beauty. Perhaps this is why the narrator begs for his lover's forehead to remain intact and why he wishes nothing more than for time to "allow the model of beauty to become a model for successful men." or that the beauty of his lover becomes an example of perfection for generations to come (12). . And by describing how Time can kill even Phoenixes, who traditionally burn themselves to rise from the ashes, Shakespeare shows us that nothing is beyond the power of Time, not even things that seem immortal. Shakespeare finally demonstrates the supremacy of Time through a motif of acuity. This is seen in the way the narrator asks Time “not to sculpt with your hours the beautiful brow of my love” as well as in the sharpness of the animals' claws and teeth (9). This acuity can be compared to the way Shakespeare views life in general – as an experience so short and fleeting that he needs to beg for more Time, even though he knows that what he is asking is impossible. Despite the fact that he states: "I forbid you a most heinous crime", it is clear that he doubts himself because in the last two lines, he gives in and declares that his lover will remain immortal through death. poetry of Shakespeare (8). The motif of sharpness found in the animals and in the ancient feather as well as in the short lifespan adds to the idea that time unfairly separates two lovers. In the end, even his pleas are not enough to stop Time from reaching his lover and the only thing he can find comfort in is the fact that poetry will keep his lover alive in spirit. It is this volta between the first twelve lines and the rhyming couplet at the end which demonstrates his abandonment to time. Thus, in “Sonnet 19”, the poetic devices of personification, imagery.