Q: Discuss Shakespeare’s Time and Love theory in reference to
Sonnet No. 18.
A: Shakespeare, in his Sonnet 18,
‘Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?’ captures forever the beauty of his
young friend in the very form of poem. In this sonnet, he explores the ravages
of time, the brevity of life, beauty and love and the timelessness of poetry.
Time devours all.
It can strike the darling buds of May. Summer too is very short. Summer with
which the poet’s friend’s beauty is compared, also fleets with the passage of
time. Even, every fare thing is subject to death, decay and destruction. So,
the poet’s friend’s beauty would also decrease. But Shakespeare wanted to
immortalize his friend’s beauty. So he thought of a literary immortality
through his verse.
In the third
quatrain of Sonnet 18, he bestows ‘unchangeability’ to the young friend through
poetry. In the couplet, the poet underlines eternal beauty of the young man
through the eternal beauty of the young man through the eternal lines of his
verse. Since his friend’s beauty is captured in the poetry, it will only grow
through poetry rather than vanish in the shadow of death.
Thus Shakespeare
triumphs over the agonizing consciousness of Time by a convincing assertion of
Time by poetic creativity.
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