My love shall in my verse ever live young. Yet do thy worst, old Time! Despite thy wrong Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen!

O, carve not with the hours my love’s fair brow, To the wide world and all her fading sweets īut I forbid thee one more heinous crime: Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,Īnd do whate’er thou wilt, swift-footed Time, Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws,Īnd burn the long-liv’d Phoenix in her blood Original Textĭevouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws,Īnd make the earth devour her own sweet brood But reveals that should Time not honour this request that they have a cunning plan to thwart Time itself. The poet tells time of all the things they’d rather time do. The poet is making a plea to our character ‘Time’ to keep the fair youth beautiful forever. The youth as the physical subject of the sonnets will age and eventually die, but in the sonnets themselves he will remain young and beautiful.In this sonnet in the fair youth phase we have an argument that is very clear and straightforward, but has some incredible imagery. Because poetry, according to the poet, is eternal, it only stands to reason that his poetry about the young man will ensure the youth's immortality.

However, nature's threatening the youth's beauty does not matter, for the poet confidently asserts that the youth will gain immortality as the subject of the sonnets.

Note that the word 'lines' in line 10 unquestionably means wrinkles in the previous sonnet, 'lines' had at least three possible meanings.Īlthough the poet begs time not to ravish the young man's beauty, to leave it 'untainted' as an example of perfection ('beauty's pattern') upon which all can gaze, the concluding couplet, especially line 13's beginning 'Yet,' underscores the poet's insecurity of what he asks for. Then, in line 8, the poet inserts the counter-statement, one line earlier than usual: 'But I forbid thee one most heinous crime.' The poet wants time to leave the young man's beauty untouched. The sonnet's first seven lines address the ravages of nature that 'Devouring Time' can wreak. However uninspired the sonnet as a whole might seem, the imagery of animals is particularly vivid. The poet then commands Time not to age the young man and ends by boldly asserting that the poet's own creative talent will make the youth permanently young and beautiful. In Sonnet 19, the poet addresses Time and, using vivid animal imagery, comments on Time's normal effects on nature.

Full Glossary for Shakespeare's Sonnets.

Sonnet 19 shakespeare