In Sonnet 19, William Shakespeare uses disastrous imagery, deliberate metrical inversions, and assertive diction in order to imply that he is in control despite Time’s massive power.
By illustrating examples of substantial destruction, Shakespeare accentuates the power Time holds in the natural world. Shakespeare begins Sonnet 19 by emphasizing the extent of power which Time holds in regard to the erosion of nature. In quatrain 1, Time ravages symbols of strength in nature by “blunt[ing] thou the lion’s paws” (1) and “[p]luck[ing] the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws” (3). By describing the dominion Time has over Earth’s reigning beasts, Shakespeare demonstrates that even nature’s strongest is weaker than Time. In line 4, Shakespeare uses a mythical creature identified with immortality to show that Time can even “burn the long-liv’d phoenix in her blood”. While the phoenix is able to rise from its own ashes, this line implies that the creature is perpetually dead. Shakespeare creates an image that Time can do the seemingly impossible and take life from the immortal. In addition to this, Shakespeare demonstrates how Time has authority over nature itself by creating a disturbing image of Time forcing “the earth [to] devour her own sweet brood”. By giving the pronoun “her” (2) to the earth and describing life as her “brood” (2), Shakespeare creates an image of a mother who is terrorized into eating her own children and implies that Time is powerful enough to orchestrate this. In the third quatrain, Shakespeare pivots his focus onto his beloved Fair Youth and pleads Time to “carve not with thy hours my love’s fair brow / Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen” (9-10). Here, Shakespeare depicts physical signs of aging as a result of Time using Fair Youth’s image as a blank canvas. The carefree WAY that the destruction of Fair Youth’s image is related to writing with a pen again illuminates Time’s power. Through pitting Time against symbols of strength and resilience in nature, Shakespeare expresses how powerful he regards Time to be.
In order to DRAMATIZE the power associated with Time, Shakespeare deliberately uses metrical inversions and deviations in form. The meter of the first quatrain of this sonnet emphasizes the destructive behavior of Time by replacing iambs with trochees and spondees. In line 1, the third iamb is replaced with a trochee, bringing attention to the phrase “blunt thou” in order to emphasize the assonance between the verb selection in the quatrain and strengthen the stress behind the word “blunt”. Shakespeare also uses inversions in meter to create a turbulent NONFLOWY flow of stressed syllables which strengthens the quatrain’s theme of unpredictable destruction. For example, Shakespeare creates several metrical inversions in line 3 to express the intensity of Time’s actions as it “[p]luck[s] the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws”. More than half of the syllables in this line are stressed, intensifying the scope of Time’s destruction within the first quatrain. In the first half of the second quatrain, Shakespeare focuses on the quick passing of Time and strengthens this theme by using syncopes, or poetic contractions, such as “fleet’st” (5) and “e’er” (6). Shortening these words emphasize how short life is in comparison to time, which is personified to be around even before the beginning of existence. On the other hand, Shakespeare refrains from any changes in meter or form in the third quatrain. The regular and rhythmic iambic pentameter suggests that the Fair Youth being described is wholly perfect. Although Time is powerful, Shakespeare begs for his Fair Youth to be “untainted” (11) and kept perfectly pure. The regular meter is kept until the first line of the couplet, where “old Time” (13) reappears forcefully with a spondee. This break in rhythm brings light to how Time destroys perfection, just like with youthfulness. In order to relay the message of Time’s power, Shakespeare uses metrical inversions and diversions in form.
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