Shakespeare Sonnet 17 Analysis
Shakespeare Sonnet 17 Analysis
M. Malahi
10/24/11
English Honors
“Who will believe my verse in time to come”, Shakespeare is already setting a disparaging yet urgent tone. “If it were fill’d with your most high deserts?”, he is worried that in the future no one believes his poetry if he writes what he truly sees and feels of his subject. Shakespeare is concerned that he needs to get his point across using whatever means he must to insure belief in his work and future generations of mankind. Shakespeare fears that “poet’s rage” is how the sonnet will be portrayed, falsely giving youth such beauty and power than it actually possesses.
“This poet lies” shows through as insecurity that his work is not of worth and will be seen as just his point of view. Shakespeare speaks of himself and his works and how the continuation of youth though “my papers, yellow with age”, will still be relevant and to avoid being “scorned” he must not let the reader feel that he is exaggerating lest you think is it just “a poet’s rage” and not imperative to live his words to prove him right, “You should live twice, in it and in my rhyme”. This sets up Shakespeare to be remembered while at the same time making sure that youth is not lost through procreation.
Seeing that his words are taken to heart would allow a reader to see that these were not exaggerated, by seeing the child of this person. It would show that the beauty of youth had continued and through that his poetry would gain validation. “And stretched meter of an antique song”, also shows a struggle against time and that only through youth’s beauty and his verse is life eternal, thus so is Shakespeare.
This would erase the worry of “the age to come would say, “This poet lies”, though he wants to write of the subject’s beauty, he is essence using the work to reveal his feelings of insecurity of his writing’s future. He uses his subject to his advantage in that by procreation, he will be
M. Malahi
10/24/11
English Honors
“Who will believe my verse in time to come”, Shakespeare is already setting a disparaging yet urgent tone. “If it were fill’d with your most high deserts?”, he is worried that in the future no one believes his poetry if he writes what he truly sees and feels of his subject. Shakespeare is concerned that he needs to get his point across using whatever means he must to insure belief in his work and future generations of mankind. Shakespeare fears that “poet’s rage” is how the sonnet will be portrayed, falsely giving youth such beauty and power than it actually possesses.
“This poet lies” shows through as insecurity that his work is not of worth and will be seen as just his point of view. Shakespeare speaks of himself and his works and how the continuation of youth though “my papers, yellow with age”, will still be relevant and to avoid being “scorned” he must not let the reader feel that he is exaggerating lest you think is it just “a poet’s rage” and not imperative to live his words to prove him right, “You should live twice, in it and in my rhyme”. This sets up Shakespeare to be remembered while at the same time making sure that youth is not lost through procreation.
Seeing that his words are taken to heart would allow a reader to see that these were not exaggerated, by seeing the child of this person. It would show that the beauty of youth had continued and through that his poetry would gain validation. “And stretched meter of an antique song”, also shows a struggle against time and that only through youth’s beauty and his verse is life eternal, thus so is Shakespeare.
This would erase the worry of “the age to come would say, “This poet lies”, though he wants to write of the subject’s beauty, he is essence using the work to reveal his feelings of insecurity of his writing’s future. He uses his subject to his advantage in that by procreation, he will be