William Shakespeares Sonnet #55 Essay - 556 Words

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet #55 is a Shakespearian sonnet. It contains three quatrains, or four line stanzas, and ends with a couplet. The poem is written in iambic pentameter William Shakespeare’s Sonnet #55 is a Shakespearian sonnet. It contains three quatrains, or four line stanzas, and ends with a couplet. The poem is written in iambic pentameter. The speaker is the older man. This is the same speaker in many of Shakespeare’s sonnets. In this sonnet the speaker is telling the young man, beautiful, male addressee that he is not sharing his beauty with the world, but is selfishly keeping it all to himself. He’s explaining to the addressee that he needs to have children to spread his beauty and share it with the world.†¦show more content†¦In the second quatrain Shakespeare uses strong imagery of war and destructiveness. He says that no war or physical damage to the world will erase the memory of the poem. Nothing will ruin â€Å"the living record of [his] memory† (Shakespeare line 8). In the third quatrain he reiterates the idea of immortality and image of destruction and waste is continued. Shakespeare writes,  "’gainst death and all-oblivious enmity/ shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room† (Shakespeare lines 9-10). The ending couplet sums up the main idea of the sonnet. It continues with the image of eternity and the memory of the addressee. When Shakespeare writes â€Å"So, till the judgment that yourself arise / you live in this and dwell in lovers eyes† there is still an emphasis on the word of the poem itself. The real praise is towards the words of the speaker, not the beauty of the addressee or the speakers love for him. The regularity in the flow of the poem helps the main ideas flow well. There’s more fluidity in the regulation; this allows each quatrain to build on each other strengthening the main point of the sonnet. The lesson to be learned in this specific sonnet is the idea of the immortality of literature. The entire poem is masked by the idea of praise for the addressee. The language of the poem, the destructiveness, suggests the survivability of the poem itself. Shakespeare is usingShow MoreRelatedSpenser and Shakespeare: Contrasting Approaches to Sonnets1100 Words   |  5 Pagesto Sonnets For over many centuries, countless poets have chosen to interpret their thoughts, sentiments and concepts through sonnets as opposed to other varying forms of poetry. Invented in Europe and perfected by Petrarch around the XIV century, the sonnet is considered to be the longest lived form of poetry and has since influenced the works and minds of succeeding artists such as Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare. 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