Analysis on William Shakespeare's Sonnet Lx

1468 Words6 Pages
Shakespeare's sonnet LX is a poem which deals with one of the author's commonest themes: the passing of time and its consequences on human life – its passing from the cradle to the grave -.This theme of the ravages of time is a recurring one throughout all the sonnets, and it might be said that sonnet LX is the best example of it. Structurally, this sonnet has the typical Shakespearean disposition, that is, a 14-line poem organized in three quatrains and a couplet at the end, with a very simple rhyme that follows the pattern ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and written in iambic pentameter. Each of the quatrains focus its attention on a different aspect of the passing of time, using images and metaphors to describe it and its effects on human life. The sonnet develops in a deductive way, going from general matters to more specific ones – perhaps related to the life of the author - , and reaching the most personal aspects at the end, coinciding with the couplet. The most general vision of time is tackled in the first quatrain: 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. This single-sentence quatrain is presented as a simile, a concrete image in which time is compared to the waves of the ocean, these being, at the same time, compared with the minutes of our lives; since the waves, with their incessant movement, come to die to the “pebbled shore”, our minutes also go towards our end. Both waves and minutes tend to move forward, being replaced by the one which comes next, and nobody is able to stop this flow. The use of some words, such as “toil” or “contend” in the last line, may have the sense of life as something hard, something against which all human beings have to fight in their way to survival. The hopelessness feeling is obvious, as the

More about Analysis on William Shakespeare's Sonnet Lx

Open Document