Sonnet 63 is one of
154 sonnets published in 1609 by the English playwright and poet
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
. It is one of the
Fair Youth sequence. Contrary to most of the other poems in the Fair Youth sequence, in Sonnets 63 to 68 there is no explicit addressee, and the second person pronoun (you or thou) is not used anywhere in sonnets 63 to 68.
Synopsis
In Sonnet 63, the poet expresses his concern that the memory of his love's beauty be preserved and protected. The poet imagines a time when the young man will be old and worn, as he, the poet, is now. The passing of time will drain the young man's blood, carve wrinkles in his face, erode and wear away all of his beauty. Time will eventually take away the young man. To prevent the young man's beauty being cut from memory, this sonnet will be read and will preserve the memory of the young man's beauty. Unlike
Sonnet 2, in which immortality is gained through
procreation
Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. Reproduction is a fundamental feature of all known life; each individual org ...
, here it is gained in the reading of this poem ("these black lines").
Structure
Sonnet 63 is an English or Shakespearean
sonnet. The English sonnet has three
quatrains, followed by a final rhyming
couplet. It follows the typical
rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
An example of the ABAB r ...
of the form, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and is composed in
iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called " feet". "Iam ...
, a type of poetic
metre
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The third line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × /
When hours have drained his blood, and filled his brow (63.3)
:/ = ''ictus'', a metrically strong syllabic position. × = ''nonictus''.
The sonnet is quite metrically regular, but two variations stand out:
× / × / × / / × × /
With time's injurious hand crushed and o'er-worn; (63.2)
/ × × / × / × / × /
Stealing away the treasure of his spring; (63.8)
Reversals — such as the mid-line reversal "crush'd and", and the initial reversal "stealing" — can be used to bring special emphasis to words, especially verbs of action or motion, a practice
Marina Tarlinskaja calls ''rhythmical italics''.
Here, both instances highlight Time's cruel effects upon beauty.
Analysis
Like Sonnet 2, this poem makes use of cutting and crushing imagery to depict the effects of time in creating
wrinkles
A wrinkle, also known as a rhytid, is a fold, ridge or crease in an otherwise smooth surface, such as on skin or fabric. Skin wrinkles typically appear as a result of ageing processes such as glycation, habitual sleeping positions, loss of bo ...
on the face. The prevailing metaphors in this sonnet compare youthful beauty to riches, similar to
Sonnet 4, and old age and death to night, similar to
Sonnet 12
Sonnet 12 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a procreation sonnet within the Fair Youth sequence.
In the sonnet, the poet goes through a series of images of mortality, such as a clock, ...
.
The attention to the subject's mortality, returned to in this sonnet, remains the focus for the next two sonnets, and
Sonnet 65 contains much the same resolution as this one does.
References
Further reading
External links
Analysis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnet 063
British poems
Sonnets by William Shakespeare