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SONNET 18 vs SONNET 60 Both sonnets share the same general idea: the immortalization of the beloved. Beauty is seen as something that will change as time passes by; even though it is something the speaker almost refuses to admit. Nonetheless, the speaker, in both sonnets, defies time and vows to keep his beloved's beauty alive and well, even if it's only through the existence of his lines. When examining these sonnets by Shakespeare, one comes to realize just how important life and the passage of time are. Like the passage of time, life, too, passes by. Even though, they both have their own entity, the passage of time affects life in a way that it changes the physical appearance. Change is a major element that life and time both share as they pass by. That is what Shakespeare wants to stress. He uses many "tools" to express the similarities and differences between the passage of life and the passage of time. All kinds of figures of speech are at his disposal and he doesn't hesitate to use any of them where he sees fit. SONNET 60 Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end; Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forwards do contend. Nativity, once in the main of light, Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d, Crooked elipses ’gainst his glory fight, And Time that gave doth now his gift confound. Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow, Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth, And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow: And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand, Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.” This sonnet attempts to explain the nature of time as it passes, and as it acts on human life by using a metaphorical use of language. In the first quatrain, the speaker says that the minutes replace one another like waves on the “pebbled shore,” each taking the place of that which came before it in a regular sequence. In this quatrain, the metaphor for the

Sonnet 18 versus Sonnet 60

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A comparison of Shakespeare's Sonnets 18 and 60

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Page 1: Sonnet 18 versus Sonnet 60

SONNET 18 vs SONNET 60

Both sonnets share the same general idea: the immortalization of the beloved. Beauty is seen as something that will change as time passes by; even though it is something the speaker almost refuses to admit. Nonetheless, the speaker, in both sonnets, defies time and vows to keep his beloved's beauty alive and well, even if it's only through the existence of his lines. When examining these sonnets by Shakespeare, one comes to realize just how important life and the passage of time are. Like the passage of time, life, too, passes by. Even though, they both have their own entity, the passage of time affects life in a way that it changes the physical appearance. Change is a major element that life and time both share as they pass by. That is what Shakespeare wants to stress. He uses many "tools" to express the similarities and differences between the passage of life and the passage of time. All kinds of figures of speech are at his disposal and he doesn't hesitate to use any of them where he sees fit.

SONNET 60 „Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end; Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forwards do contend. Nativity, once in the main of light, Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d, Crooked elipses ’gainst his glory fight, And Time that gave doth now his gift confound. Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow, Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth, And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:    And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,    Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.”

This sonnet attempts to explain the nature of time as it passes, and as it acts on human life by using a metaphorical use of language. In the first quatrain, the speaker says that the minutes replace one another like waves on the “pebbled shore,” each taking the place of that which came before it in a regular sequence. In this quatrain, the metaphor for the passing of tome is that of the tide; just as waves cycle forward and replace one another on the beach, so do minutes struggle forward in “sequent toil.”

In the second quatrain, he tells the story of a human life in time by comparing it to the sun: at birth (“Nativity”), it rises over the ocean (“the main of light”), then crawls upward toward noon (the “crown” of “maturity”), then is suddenly undone by “crooked eclipses”, which fight against and confound the sun’s glory. In this quatrain the focus shifts from the passage of time to the passage of human life, using the metaphor of the sun during the span of a day.

In the third quatrain, time is depicted as a ravaging monster, which halts youthful flourish, digs wrinkles in the brow of beauty, gobbles up nature’s beauties, and mows down with his scythe everything that stands. In the couplet, the speaker opposes his verse to the ravages of time: he says that his verse will stand in times to come, and will continue to praise the “worth” of the beloved despite the “cruel hand” of time. In this quatrain, the metaphor becomes one of time as a personified force, a ravaging monster, who digs trenches in beauty, devours nature, and mows down all that stands with his scythe..

Page 2: Sonnet 18 versus Sonnet 60

SONNET 18

„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 dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest:    So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,    So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets; it may be the most famous lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeare’s works, only lines such as “To be or not to be” and “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” are better-known. This is not to say that it is at all the best or most interesting or most beautiful of the sonnets; but the simplicity and loveliness of its praise of the beloved has guaranteed its place.

On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and temperate. Summer is incidentally personified as the “eye of heaven” with its “gold complexion”; the imagery throughout is simple and unaffected, with the “darling buds of May” giving way to the “eternal summer”, which the speaker promises the beloved. The language, too, is comparatively unadorned for the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly every line is its own self-contained clause—almost every line ends with some punctuation, which effects a pause.