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READ THIS
The poet looks at the aging process, noting how everything passes from youth to old age and death.
Nothing can stop it, he says, except perhaps if we each breed lots of children, then we will live on through
those children.
ABOUT THE POET
William Shakespeare, commonly known simply as "The Bard", was born in April 1564. Although he lived
a mere 52 years, he has won himself the reputation of being the greatest of all English poets and
playwrights.
He grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon where, at the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway with whom he had
three children. Modern scholars love to question whether or not he was actually gay - but such is the
energy-sapping research of these scholars.
The Bard established a most successful career for himself in acting and in writing for the stage. Ultimately
he became the part-owner of The Lord Chamberlain's Men, a theatrical company which eventually
came to be known as The King's Men.
In his early years in theatrics, Shakespeare focussed his attention on writing comedies and histories. Only
later did he produce a series of tragedies such as Hamlet, Macbeth and King
Lear, the works for which he is preeminently known.
Although he wrote two lengthy narrative poems as well as several other shorter poems, his reputation as
a poet was established through his amazing collection of sonnets - 154 in all.
Indeed, his particular style of sonnet, commonly known as the Elizabethan form, is also referred to simply
as "the Shakespearian sonnet".
In about 1613, he returned to Stratford-upon-Avon and died there in April 1616. Scholars would later
come to question not only his sexual stance but also whether or not it was he who actually wrote all the
work attributed to him.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
Apart from the fact that Shakespeare wrote this poem, how can we tell that it's a Shakespearian
sonnet? (6)
[Need help?]
Remember that a sonnet is a 14 line poem - not one line more and not one line less. This one follows a
very clear rhyming scheme:
abab cdcd efef gg
Do you see the rhyming couplet at the end? This gives the game away, doesn't it? Only Shakespearian
sonnets end with a rhyming couplet.
But there's more. This sonnet can be broken into three quatrains - i.e. three four line verses - and then
the rhyming couplet. An Italian sonnet, on the other hand, has an octave and a sestet.
Each quatrain also carries a specific message, and the sonnet is concluded in the rhyming couplet
whereas the Italian sonnet usually carries one message in the octave and another in the sestet. And
there's no rhyming couplet.
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"When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white."
- What is the theme of this quatrain? (2)
[Need help?]
The poet looks at the aging process, showing how everything is steadily aging.
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- The poet speaks of three measurements which reflect the passing of time. Explain what they
are? (6)
[Need help?]
The first is the clock which chimes away the passing hours. The second is the passing of the day from
morning till midnight. The third is the passing of the seasons, from spring till winter.
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- Why does the poet "count the clock"? (4)
[Need help?]
One might just say that Shakespeare was "counting time" but what does one mean by that?
You see, mechanical clocks were only invented during the Renaissance, and just before Shakespeare's
birth. They had neither faces nor hands and were usually housed in a church belfry where they sounded
every hour by striking a huge bell.
One therefore literally had to "count the clock", counting each gong as it sounded.
Out of interest, the wealthy might also have used a pocket sundial which they would have had to position
carefully in relation to the sun. But, of course, one wouldn't know the time on a cloudy or rainy day unless
one had the ring of the church clock to count.
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- Why should the day be "brave" whereas the night is "hideous"? (4)
[Need help?]
The daytime in this poem is a metaphor for life. Life is therefore brave because it struggles on against
all obstacles.
Night, on the other hand, represents approaching death, and death is synonymous with the Grim Reaper
who is always a fearful sight. Death therefore fills one with dread and is feared.
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- What is a "violet"? Why is it "past prime"? (4)
[Need help?]
The "violet" is a little purple flower which tends to form a ground cover of pretty flowers on a green carpet
of leaves. It is "past prime" when the bloom is getting old and is beginning to wilt and fade. In other
words, the flower is nearing its death.
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- What are the "sable curls"? Why would they be "silver'd o'er with white"? (4)
[Need help?]
"Sable curls" would be the hair from the sable fox which would be dark brown in colour. Probably the poet
is using this as a metaphor for a person with long brown hair, or perhaps he is referring to a person who
is wearing a wig which has been made from the hair of the sable fox.
"Silver'd o'er with white" refers once more to the aging process. Brown hair becomes silver or white with
age.
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- What is the purpose of the apostrophes in "silver'd" and in "o'er"? (4)
[Need help?]
Shakespearian sonnets are always written in what is known as "iambic pentameters", i.e. there are ten
syllables in every line of the poem, never more and never less.
But these are then broken up into five pairs, called five "feet". "Pentameter" means "five feet". "Iambic"
means that each foot has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.
In Shakespeare's day, each and every syllable would have been pronounced. "Silvered" would therefore
have been pronounced "sil-ver-red" which gives us three syllables. "Ov-er" would have two syllables.
Without the apostrophes, therefore, that particular line would have had 12 syllables, which is two too
many. The poet therefore has to drop two syllables to get to the right length, and this is shown by the
apostrophes.
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This sonnet is often referred to as the "fertility sonnet". In what way can this be said to be true? (6)
[Need help?]
The poet does indeed compare fertility to death. Everything is fertile and breeds in its youth: the flowers,
the animals, the crops in the fields, the trees, the people.
But then everything grows old and barren, and is no longer able to breed. The flowers fade, the trees lose
their leaves, the crops are harvested, the old men are taken to their funeral.
But, says Shakespeare in his rhyming couplet, the only way to avoid this is through fertility itself: while one
is young and fertile, breed lots of children and then they will live on after we are dead.
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