William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 19, a part of the Fair Youth sequence, explores the theme of time, its inevitable effects on beauty and life, and the poet‘s defiance against time through the preservation of love in poetry. The sonnet is one of Shakespeare’s most poignant meditations on the power of time and the resilience of art. The poet employs vivid imagery, strong personification, and formal poetic structure to address the ravages of time, while ultimately asserting the eternal nature of love preserved in verse.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 19
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws
And make the Earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet’st
And do whate’er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets.
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O, carve not with thy hours my love’s fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty’s pattern to succeeding men.
Yet do thy worst, old Time; despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
The Structure and Tone of Sonnet 19
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 19 adheres to the traditional English sonnet form: 14 lines in iambic pentameter, divided into three quatrains and a final couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, a structure that allows for the development of a logical progression of thought, building toward a resolution in the final rhymed couplet. The sonnet exhibits a clear shift from the destructive force of time to the redemptive power of poetry, culminating in the assertion that love, preserved in verse, transcends the natural decay of time.
The tone of the sonnet can be described as a blend of defiance and determination. While the speaker acknowledges time’s inevitable power to destroy and decay, he simultaneously expresses an unwavering commitment to defy this force by immortalizing his love in the written word. The tone is both wistful, in the contemplation of time’s devastation, and triumphant, in the poet’s resolve to resist it.
Analysis of Sonnet 19
Lines 1–4
“Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws
And make the Earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;”
In these opening lines, Shakespeare immediately sets the stage for the central conflict of the sonnet—time’s destructive power. He personifies Time as a devouring force, able to blunt the lion’s claws and reduce the fierce tiger’s jaws, two symbols of nature’s strength and ferocity. The imagery of the “lion’s paws” and “tiger’s jaws” suggests the untamable forces of nature, which, in the face of time, are rendered powerless.
The phrase “make the Earth devour her own sweet brood” invokes a disturbing image of nature turning upon itself, consuming its own creations. This could be an allusion to the natural cycle of birth, death, and decay, which is uncontrollable and relentless, much like time itself. The mention of the “long-lived phoenix,” a mythical creature known for being reborn from its ashes, reinforces the idea that not even immortality can resist the ravages of time. Time’s power to burn the phoenix in its blood is a symbolic gesture that no entity, no matter how eternal, is safe from its effects.
These lines highlight the extent of Time’s influence and prepare the reader for the speaker’s appeal to Time in the following quatrains.
Lines 5–8
“Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet’st
And do whate’er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets.
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:”
Shakespeare continues the personification of Time by invoking the idea of “glad and sorry seasons,” suggesting that time controls the changing of seasons, as well as the fluctuations of joy and sorrow in life. The use of “swift-footed” emphasizes the rapidity with which time moves, an unstoppable force that impacts both the “wide world” and all its “fading sweets.” The word “sweets” here evokes a sense of beauty and delight—precious, but transient.
In the face of this unstoppable, fleeting nature of time, the speaker shifts his focus. He accepts that time will run its course, but he draws a line at one particular crime, which introduces the turn in the poem—a shift from passive acceptance to active resistance.
Lines 9–12
“O, carve not with thy hours my love’s fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty’s pattern to succeeding men.”
The speaker directly addresses Time in these lines, pleading for it to spare his love from the inevitable effects of aging. He imagines time as a sculptor, carving lines into the brow of his beloved, a metaphor for the wrinkles and signs of aging that time imposes on the human face. The “antique pen” further reinforces this idea—an old tool representing time’s ability to inscribe its marks upon a person’s features, the “lines” being a symbol of age and decline.
However, the speaker argues that his beloved should remain untainted by time’s effects, preserved for future generations as a model of beauty. The “pattern” of beauty is a reference to the enduring ideal of physical perfection, which the speaker wishes to preserve through poetry, untouched by time’s destructive influence. This marks a turning point in the poem, as the speaker is not merely acknowledging time’s power, but actively resisting it by invoking the potential of art to preserve what is beautiful and fleeting.
Lines 13–14
“Yet do thy worst, old Time; despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.”
The final couplet reveals the speaker’s ultimate resolution and defiance. He acknowledges that time will continue its destructive work, but he boldly declares that, in his verse, his love will remain forever young. Shakespeare suggests that poetry—art—has the power to resist time’s decay and immortalize beauty and love. Despite the ravages of time, the love described in the sonnet will endure through the written word.
The phrase “ever live young” is a paradox. It suggests that while the subject of the poem may physically age and succumb to the effects of time, their essence—captured in the speaker’s verse—will remain unaltered and eternal. This final defiance against time reflects the core of Shakespeare’s poetic philosophy: through art, one can transcend the limitations of the human experience, achieving immortality.
Conclusion
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 19 is a meditation on the power of time and its inevitable impact on life and beauty. Through vivid and sometimes violent imagery, the poet explores the destructive potential of time, only to ultimately resolve that the love he expresses in verse will defy its grasp. The poem reflects Shakespeare’s belief in the transcendent power of poetry, suggesting that art, particularly the written word, has the ability to preserve beauty beyond the reach of time. In this sense, Sonnet 19 stands as both a commentary on time’s relentless force and an assertion of the enduring power of love and art.
