Vox Populi
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William Shakespeare: Sonnets 18 & 19
Sonnet 18
In a radical departure from the previous sonnets, the young man’s beauty, here more perfect even than a day in summer, is not threatened by Time or Death, since he will live in perfection forever in the poet’s verses.
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Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
~~
Sonnet 19
The “war with Time” announced in s. 15 is here engaged in earnest as the poet, allowing Time its usual predations, forbids it to attack the young man. Should this command fail to be effective, however, the poet claims that the young man will in any case remain always young in the poet’s verse.
.
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.
Public Domain. Source: The Folger Shakespeare Library.
For a short biography of William Shakespeare, click here.
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Tashi likes poetry
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So does Josie.
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I’ve long had #18 by heart, and often repeat it to the dog as we walk– I like to crack myself up (as only we poetry geeks can) by changing the last couplet to “So long as men can breathe and eyes can see / So long lives this, and this give life to me.” …Because who do we all really remember now? Shakespeare, or what’s-her-face?
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Or what’s HIS face. The poem is addressed to a young man…. I like the idea of reciting poems to your dog as you walk. I’m going to try that.
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Your dog will surely thank you for it. LOL
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Yes, Valentine’s Day. I said to my kids that I don’t want a Mother’s Day, unless it’s Mother’s Day every day, with little signs of love. I don’t ‘do’ Valentine’s Day because for us it’s VD every day. But I ‘do’ Shakespear happily all year round.
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I love these sonnets.
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Awakened from some evil dream, a sonnet. Thank you for the best antidote.
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The joys of love, and the sonnets that help sustain that love throughout the ages. How important they are in these days of tooth and claw.
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I like to think that a sonnet a day will keep the gloom at bay…and for the most part of my adult life that has been true. Today’s twofer is doubly rich.
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Well-said, Marc.
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I love these sonnets – they’re a relief in the reality weighing down our world today…
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Thanks, Noelle. Poetry is my salvation.
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… as it is mine, dear Michael.
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Yes.
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