Spring and summer were happy, autumn also, but with a hint of theĮnd, and of slightly ambiguous beauty. Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st, Winter

And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood The phoenix was a bird of legend, said to live for 500 years, at the end of which time it burnt itself on its own funeral pyre, from the ashes of which it would subsequently arise. His fierceness was abated by the passage of time. Even the tiger, almost a fabulous animal in Shakespeare's time, was subject to decay. Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws, Rotten teeth were a sign of age. In Greek mythology, Saturn, the old earth God, was supposed to have eaten all of his children as soon as they were born. And make the earth devour her own sweet brood The earth devours her own children in the sense that they all return to the dust and ashes of which they were made. Here Time is shown destroying the fiercest as well as the mildest things. Thou the lion's paws, 'Time devours all things' is a recorded proverb of the age. 13Īnd all in war with Time for love of you,Īs he takes from you, I engraft you new. O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know Make thee another self, for love of me, 10 In fact the change has already occurred, in 10, 13, and 15 before it is repeated here.

The two declarations of love are important, because some commentators claim that sonnet 20 marks a change of direction in the poet's attitude to the young man. Yet despite this the youth will survive in the verses made to celebrate his beauty and the poet's love for him. And, despite a temporary prohibition, which the poet then abandons, time will proceed on its usual course, and even do its worst against the youth, the poet's love. Time will instead do the conventional damage which is customary and known to all, killing sweetness and beauty everywhere. Not only will he live forever, but he will be eternally young, and the ravages of time will not touch him.

Sonnet 19 shakespeare