Archive for December 13th, 2008

We could ask him, but...

What a week this has been… “devouring time” has indeed seemed to feast on the hours and minutes of the last seven days.  So, here we are once again with Shakespeare Saturday.

One constant source of heated debate and controversy regarding Shakespeare is speculation about his love life.  It is known that he was married, probably to legitimize his bride’s pregnancy (their first child was born about six months after vows were exchanged).  He probably also took another woman as mistress for some time later in his life.

Some of Shakespeare’s poetry suggests an additional liaison.  Many modern readers and critics believe that the Bard had a romantic relationship with another male, and Sonnet 19 is one of a number of sonnets which apparently indicate this.  Another school of thought argues that Shakespeare may merely have been expressing strong but friendly affection; another argues that the sonnets’ speaker (their “I” and “me”) might not represent Shakespeare himself; yet another leans toward the familial-love interpretation I briefly mentioned when I discussed Sonnet 18.  As any one person’s opinion is potentially as well-founded as any other, given the few clues available, I invite you to decide for yourself as you read:

Sonnet 19

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws,
And burn the long-liv’d phoenix, in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,
And do whate’er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O! carve not with thy hours my love’s fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty’s pattern to succeeding men.
    Yet, do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong,
    My love shall in my verse ever live young.

What I get out of it

The God of Passing Time

Shakespeare’s poetic speaker addresses him- (or her-) self to an animated and malicious “Time.”  Time works destruction on everything in the universe.  It “blunt[s] the lion’s paws” and “pluck[s] the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws,” rendering these fearsome predators ineffective in their old age.  It brings an end even to the ever-renewing life of the “phoenix.”  It forces the “sweet brood” of living creatures to be devoured by — figuratively, buried in –”the earth” that spawned them.  The seasons themselves are born (made “glad”) but then die (make “sorry”) as Time touches them.

Shakespeare’s speaker acknowledges this and accepts it — but one act is unacceptable and unforgivable.  Time must not ever commit the “heinous crime” of bringing age and ruin to the young man about whom the poem is written.  Fearing that Time will “carve” wrinkles into ”my love’s fair brow,” the poem’s speaker pleads for Time’s mercy.  “Draw no lines,” the speaker begs, in the young man’s face; ”allow” his “untainted” beauty to be appreciated by others.

The sonnet’s closing couplet, however, turns defiant.  “Do thy worst,” the speaker sneers, “my love shall in my verse ever live young.”  As with Sonnet 18, the poem is a memorial, a way for the poem’s object to live eternally young and attractive, thanks to the poet’s homage.

Is it relevant?

The short answer is, “yes.”  The long answer depends on your decision regarding Shakespeare’s intentions when writing this sonnet.

If Shakespeare is writing this to a romantic interest (either a real one, or an imagined interest of the poem’s speaker), the relevance lies in the fact that we always want our lovers (and ourselves) to remain as young, fit, and attractive as they were when first we met them (even though age may not lessen the love or desire).

If Shakespeare is writing this to a close friend, he may be empathizing with the young man’s fears of growing old, either because Shakespeare shared those fears or had already realized them.

Finally, if Shakespeare writes Sonnet 19 to his son or another relative, he may simply be echoing every father’s desire for his young descendants to remain children forever.

For honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years.  But wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age. — Wisdom of Solomon 4:8-9

(Grave: Photo Credit and License; Statue: Public Domain)