Sonnet 65
Themes
The passage of time – specifically how it affects beauty and love. Are they too frail to
survive the passage of time?
Love and beauty are immortalised in the poem, despite the passage of time.
Structure
Shakespearean sonnet - Three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. Quatrains one and
two focus on the contrast between strength and weakness, demonstrating the fragility
of beauty and its lack of power against the passage of time. The speaker seems
resigned to the loss of beauty due to “sad mortality”. By the third quatrain this
perspective changes and we have a “fearful meditation” on how to save beauty and
love from time. This questioning and concerned tone is communicated through the
increased use of questions. Quatrain one ends in a question, quatrain two is one full
question but quatrain three contains three questions. This builds to the climax of the
rhyming couplet in which the poet offers some hope through a paradox:
“That in black ink my love may still shine bright.” The black ink is a metaphor for
poetry itself which can celebrate beauty and love and immortalise it. The act of
writing may stand the test of time and “shine bright”.
Imagery
1st quatrain – metaphor of a flower is used to describe beauty: “beauty… whose
action is no stronger than a flower”. This contrasts with strong elements of “brass”
stone”, “earth” and “sea”. Fragile, delicate…
2nd quatrain – personification – “summer’s honey breath” – is the image used to
describe beauty. It is sweet, it is wonderful but it is short-lived, especially in contrast
to the further images of strength: “rocks impregnable”, “gates of steel”.
3rd quatrain – metaphor of “Time’s best jewel” to describe beauty being taken to
“Time’s chest”. “Time’s chest” –ambiguous meaning? – In the context of the whole
line we have an image of a treasure chest in which Time can store stolen beauty, its
“best jewel”:
“Where, alack,
Shall Time’s best jewel from Time’s chest lie hid?”
Alternatively, “chest” is part of the personification of Time: “his swift foot” and the
capitalisation of Time (proper noun). This is suggested in the earlier quatrains:
“whose action” refers to Time in the 1st quatrain and then in the second quatrain when
“wrackful siege” and “Time decays” suggest deliberate actions on the part of Time.
Rhyming Couplet
This is the climax of the poem – the three quatrains have built up to this. Prior to the
couplet, the perspective is negative – beauty seems to be powerless against time. By
the couplet the tone is more optimistic when the art of writing itself offers a solution –
a means of preserving love and beauty. It is still not certain as this possible solution is
referred to as a “miracle” but it may have “might” – the power to defeat Time.
Consider – What is Shakespeare saying about beauty and love? What is he saying
about the significance of time? What is he saying about the power of poetry and of
art in general?