Sonnet Lx
Sonnet LX
In this Shakespearean sonnet with 14 lines, we can note that it includes 3 quatrains with 4 lines each and a couplet at the end of the sonnet, each underlying a recurring theme ; Time and Death; in which we can note the passing of human life from childhood to old age.
In the first quatrain Shakespeare is looking at the beach and at the waves racing towards the shore and disappearing hence he uses the metaphor: ‘like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore’ to compare the movement of the waves as they make their way towards the pebbled shore to how the minutes of our human lives hasten towards our end. When one waves moves forward it recedes and another one forms and it disappears again and this motion chronic, similar to the way a person dies and another one is born; we are not going to last forever, we are going to be replaced. By means of this metaphor, ‘In sequent toil all forwards do contend’ Shakespeare says that in life, moving forward is like a battle: you fight your way forward through never-ending hard work.
The second quatrain describes how our nativity, our birth, is the best time of our lives because it is the point in our life where the light is the brightest. After that we have to crawl to maturity during a slow process in which we are confronted with ‘crooked eclipses’ which symbolize setbacks and deficient misfortune. He is comparing the passing of our lives to the movement of the sun as it rises in its full glory and light and is then eclipsed. It is as if there is a fight taking place for the sun to keep its glory or for us to keep our youth but to no avail as time that was once on our side now only confuses and defeats. We should note that time is personified throughout the poem since it is written with a capital ‘T’.
In the third quatrain Shakespeare gives us a vivid image of our physical appearance and illustrates how time is a destroyer; ‘Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth’. Time cuts down all beautiful things by
In this Shakespearean sonnet with 14 lines, we can note that it includes 3 quatrains with 4 lines each and a couplet at the end of the sonnet, each underlying a recurring theme ; Time and Death; in which we can note the passing of human life from childhood to old age.
In the first quatrain Shakespeare is looking at the beach and at the waves racing towards the shore and disappearing hence he uses the metaphor: ‘like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore’ to compare the movement of the waves as they make their way towards the pebbled shore to how the minutes of our human lives hasten towards our end. When one waves moves forward it recedes and another one forms and it disappears again and this motion chronic, similar to the way a person dies and another one is born; we are not going to last forever, we are going to be replaced. By means of this metaphor, ‘In sequent toil all forwards do contend’ Shakespeare says that in life, moving forward is like a battle: you fight your way forward through never-ending hard work.
The second quatrain describes how our nativity, our birth, is the best time of our lives because it is the point in our life where the light is the brightest. After that we have to crawl to maturity during a slow process in which we are confronted with ‘crooked eclipses’ which symbolize setbacks and deficient misfortune. He is comparing the passing of our lives to the movement of the sun as it rises in its full glory and light and is then eclipsed. It is as if there is a fight taking place for the sun to keep its glory or for us to keep our youth but to no avail as time that was once on our side now only confuses and defeats. We should note that time is personified throughout the poem since it is written with a capital ‘T’.
In the third quatrain Shakespeare gives us a vivid image of our physical appearance and illustrates how time is a destroyer; ‘Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth’. Time cuts down all beautiful things by