Download Sonnet 12 - Quicknotes

Sonnet 12
• Main theme is the destruction caused by
time to nature and people alike.
• This destruction is both
- Inevitable
- Universal
1 – 8 A single continuous sentence detailing the
destruction wrought by time
1-4
When the poet considers or looks at a clock
and sees the day ended by the dark night,
when he looks at a violet with faded colour
and brown curls turned white with old age…
5-8
When he sees tall trees barren of leaves
which had once provided shade for herds,
when summers crops are cut and bundled
and taken away at harvest time like a corpse
9 - 12
• Then the poet thinks of his friend’s beauty and considers that
• He must also suffer the ravages of time
• Since all that is beautiful eventually loses its own beauty
• And becomes old and dies just as what is new and youthful
begins to grow
13 - 14
• Nothing can defend itself against time (and its scythe)
• The only way is to reproduce (breed) in order to replace what
time has taken.
Mechanics
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Lots of sound effects…
Alliteration “count…clock…..tells….time” (1)
“brave…/behold…..past prime” (2/3)
“sable….silvered” (4)
“lofty….leaves” (5)
“heat….herd” (6)
“green…girded” (7)
“Borne….bier…bristly beard” (8)
Assonance “I …time” (1) “brave day” (2) “I….prime” (3)
“trees…see…leaves” (5) “erst……herd” (6)
“ green….sheaves” (7) “bier….beard” (8) “thy…I” (9)
“beauties….do” (11) “time’s scythe…” (13)
“breed…he…thee”(14)
Standard rhyming scheme……abab / cdcd / efef / gg
Points to note
• Note how the precise rythmic structure of the opening line with its
alliterative double downbeat….”count/clock….tells/time” echoes the
relentless ticking of a clock. The unstoppable march of time.
• Shakespeare arranges a series of images in opposition to each other.
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Brave day………………..….hideous night
Violet bloom…………...…..past its prime
Sable curls…………………silvered over with white
Lofty trees………..………..barren of leaves / used to provide shade.
Summer’s green (life)….…cut down and carried on a bier (death)
– Note also how the personification of time as the reaper ties in nicely with
earlier images of crops cut down and carried away like a corpse.
Points to note…
“Borne…on…bier”(8)
Long vowel sounds emphasise the bleak mood;
“…thou…among…go”
(10)
Shakespeare personifies time as the grim reaper, unstoppable with his
scythe
“And nothing’gainst Time’s
scythe can make defence”.
(12) ”him” …and… ”he” (14)
The central image of the sheaves being
carried on the bier draws together Death,
Nature and Humanity. It’s as though the “And summer’s green all girded up in
sheaves Borne on the bier whit white and
harvested crop is carried like a human
corpse on a bier, signifying death comes bristly beard.
to all at the hands of Time