Sonnet 19 (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: William Shakespeare
- First Published: 1609
- Type of Work: Sonnet
- Genres: Poetry, Sonnet
- Subjects: Mythology or myths, Tigers, Immortality, Emotions, Death or dying, Time, Animals, dangerous, Seasons
The Poem
William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 19 is a traditional English sonnet (traditional because Shakespeare made it so), consisting of a single stanza of fourteen lines, rhymed according to a standard format. Like the other 153 sonnets by Shakespeare, Sonnet 19 has no title.
In the first quatrain, the poet addresses time as a devourer, handing out a series of defiant invitations to time to perform its most destructive acts. First, time is instructed to “blunt” the “lion’s paws,” which gives the reader an image of enormous strength reduced to impotence. In line...
[The entire page is 1429 words long]
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