The Concepts of Time and Invincibility in Shakespeare’s Sonnets

The passage of time is something that we all see as inevitable. Eventually in time all things will fade; specifically as noted in the twelfth sonnet beauty, but also that all humans eventually die. Shakespeare’s twelfth sonnet tries to explore the issue of time overcoming all, and beauty fading. It does this through the eyes of a speaker, talking about a person who is either their lover or a close friend. In the sonnet, Shakespeare gives us a wide variety of cues to indicate to us what the speaker is talking about, and what their feelings are. Through almost all of the sonnet the speaker is trying to address the issues of time, and its power. At the end of the sonnet the speaker experiences a revelation about what is important to do and pass on in the limited time that we have before we die.

In Shakespeare’s twelfth sonnet, we see through the use of description, rhythm and meter, and revelation, the speaker’s understanding of the passage of time, and why reproduction should be the ultimate goal and importance in our lifetime. Shakespeare in his twelfth sonnet uses description of the passage of time by the speaker to convey what he thinks is either important, or unimportant and fades in time. The first two quatrains of the sonnet are essentially devoted to describing the passage of time in inanimate things. When the first line of the sonnet states “When I do count the clock that tells the time,” we know this is an important setup for the following 7 lines of the sonnet as it tells the audience that the speaker is talking about time. The lines meaning is essentially the speaker saying when they see time pass by, allowing the reader to understand what the speaker is talking about. Another important thing of note here is the use of the word “when” which drastically changes the feeling, and perspective of the poem. The use of when makes it seem habitual, almost like the author continually follows a pattern of noticing the changes in everyday life. This gives the feeling that the speaker is very knowledgeable, or wise, and has seen these changes for many years. This makes the speaker’s point more important almost like the speaker must be right in the solution to this, as the speaker has continually seen these changes year after year, almost like a watcher. This is shown in effect by the uses of “when” leading to the time at which the speaker states “then” to start line 9, showing that the speaker has come to conclusions and understandings after all the time of watching the decaying all around.

The following seven lines all increase in length, as the speaker talks about seeing time overcome things, watching them die. The speaker starts, by talking about a day fading into night; then moves to an image of a violet turning white and dying after springtime stating “When I behold the violet past prime, / And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white.” Here the speaker gives the image of a flower wilting, but the next line is what’s really important. In the next line the speaker equates the “sable curls” like a person's hair turning grey in old age to a flower wilting. This is the first we see of the speaker really talking about time affecting humans, essentially stating that humans wilt and eventually die just like a violet. The speaker then uses a metaphor of a tree to convey the passage of the entire warm season into the winter season, saying “When lofty trees I see barren of leaves/Which erst from heat did canopy the herd.” This is an even longer period than spring. Shakespeare further uses states summer ending when the speaker comments “And summer's green all girded up in sheaves/Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,” which shows the end of summer, and then an image of the crops dying during winter. We can infer that because in this line “borne” means brought on, and bier means a movable frame where generally a body is brought on after death, but here it is used with crops. This could be seen as a very shocking line, the author equates a human death to the death of crops. By using the term "bier" in this context, the speaker essentially shows their view that something that normally would carry a person as a means of respect after death could carry crops. This would mean the speaker believes there is a minimal difference in the death of humans, and the death of crops, showing this through placement of the dead crops on the same place as a human after death.

The speaker's understanding of time is a very interesting one, one which leads him to a revelation later in the sonnet. The analysis of the revelation is best left for the end, however the description is a crucial part to understanding the speaker's view of time, and that all things fade with time. A small but important part of Shakespeare’s twelfth sonnet is the shift in rhythm and meter that Shakespeare uses to convey changes in the sonnet. There is but one singular example of a shift in the meter of the sonnet; however it is of crucial importance to understanding the sonnet. The eighth and ninth lines of the sonnet: “Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,/Then of thy beauty do I question make,” have a shift in meter. Every other line in the sonnet is normal, regular iambic pentameter; what Shakespeare always uses, but here there is a shift. A reader who has had a lot of experience with Shakespeare might now realize that this only ever happens when Shakespeare wants us to take note of something important. These two lines do something different: they start with trochee; a long or stressed syllable, followed by a shorter or unstressed one. This is of crucial importance because it signals a change. Through all of the sonnet the speaker of the sonnet has been talking only of inanimate things, and of nature. While the speaker has implied they are talking about people fading and dying just like anything in nature, the speaker never outright talks about humans in any direct way without implication.

The change in meter changes the context of the sonnet so we know the speaker is now actively talking to a person, as opposed to talking about something. The trochee is meant to shift attention to the person the speaker is talking to and about; the sudden shift where this occurs is highly important, as it is right before the crucial part of the sonnet. Though this only occurs once, we know that it is very important, as it is in an important place in the sonnet. In the final quatrain and couplet, the speaker comes to a revelation about life, beauty and time. The first two lines of the final quatrain are of the speaker doubting beauty, when he shares his thoughts “Then of thy beauty do I question make,/That thou among the wastes of time must go,” Here as the speaker equates the person to the inanimate things they were talking about that faded in time, he starts to come to the understanding that beauty fades. The question he is making about beauty is essentially the speaker is wondering whether beauty matters if it fades in time. The next lines further this by stating “Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake/And die as fast as they see others grow;” which is essentially furthering the point the speaker made in the previous two lines of the quatrain. Forsake is an interesting choice word, as it implies the other person will simply give up on their beauty, and it will die without care. However, the most important part of the revelation comes in the final couplet where the speaker seemingly is hopeless about fading in time when it is stated “And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence.” This essentially is the speakers worries about how nothing they do will matter, in time it will all be gone, but the final line is much more uplifting.

In the final line the speaker makes the conclusion based on the previous line “Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.” Here the speaker is saying something akin to the lasting impact we can make on the world is our children, who we can raise to be good and moral, and help the world, and so this cycle will continue. The ending revelation is what makes this such an interesting sonnet, complex, but also very insightful and provoking.