Shakespeare's Sonnets

Time is a major theme throughout most of the 154 sonnets that William Shakespeare wrote. It is referred to variously as “ould Time” (Sonnet 19), “wastfull time” (Sonnet 15), “bloudie tyrant time” (Sonnet 16), “devouring time,” “swift-footed time,” Time's “cruell hand” (Sonnet 60), “Times sieth” (Sonnet 12, meaning time's scythe), “injurious hand” (Sonnet 63), “Ages cruell knife” (Sonnet 63), “Times theevish progresse” (Sonnet 77), “times spoiles” (Sonnet 100), “times tiranie” (Sonnet 115), and “fortie Winters” (Sonnet 2) indicating the passage of time.

It is important to note that Shakespeare's treatment of time is predominantly that of an antagonist. His love defies “devouring time.” Time is the enemy that is overpowered by the eternal love he bears. It is also referred to as the time that takes away his beloved's beauty even though his love remains strong and defiant. Time is seen as a harbinger of death in which it culminates. As such, the theme of time as it hastens death is recurrent in several of the sonnets. The theme of time and death appears again in Sonnet 32, when the poet refers to his own death. Sonnet 13 also speaks of the decay that time brings and the rage of death's eternal cold, a throe of time.

Sonnet 15 shows time debating with decay to change youth to night. In this sonnet, Shakespeare defies time by “ingraft(ing)” (Sonnet 15) anew what time takes away from his love; by making her immortal with his pen even though the ravages of time might take over her physical self. He is constantly in war with time (Sonnets, 15, 16, 18, 19). Sonnet 55 refers to the end of time, doomsday, until when the Bard's beloved will be kept alive in these verses. Sonnet 60 once again returns to the theme of time as the destroyer of beauty and youth, as nothing can withstand the scythe of time except for the poet's verses singing praises of his lady love. Shakespeare makes a statement that time shall never succeed in erasing the memory of his beloved (Sonnet 63), even as in the very next sonnet he worries that time will take his love away (Sonnet 64). Even though he defies time, he continues to be haunted by it. This conflict continues in Sonnet 65, in which he is agonized by the thought of time wiping out impregnable rocks while his beloved's [Page 1154]beauty was like a flower. Yet by the end of the sonnet he gains back his confidence that his love will remain in black ink despite the ravage of time. In Sonnet 100, the Bard compares the speed of his love's fame to be faster than the destructive pace of time. In Sonnet 115, the poet, fearing time's tyranny, expresses his love in the present as the best while he harbors doubts about the times to come when he might not be in a position to do so. However, in the next sonnet (116), he writes about the unchanging nature of love, which is not “Times foole.” In Sonnet 123, he once again challenges time as not the one to bring about changes. Sonnet 126 refers to time's fickle hourglass and sickle.

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