Topic > Time and the Body: The Main Idea of ​​Shakespeare's Sonnet 12

William Shakespeare's interpretation of the passage of time seems constantly focused on its most destructive effects on the body. He is haunted by this inescapable force in many of his sonnets, describing the passage of time with almost exclusively negative terminology. He resonates the same ideal in "Sonnet 12: When I count the clock that tells the time," using a sequence of ironic personifications and metonymic symbols to illustrate the inevitability of time and, ultimately, its only conceivable obstacle in producing children . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The personifications in this sonnet function primarily to emphasize the elements of death. Shakespeare breathes life into them only to figuratively kill them soon after. It effectively demonstrates the ravages of the inevitable passage of time, as seen in this juxtaposition: “When I count the clock that tells the hour / and see the brave day sink into the hideous night” (1-2). Here the clock "tells" the time in an almost provocative way, in a certain sense mocking the "brave" day which inevitably must consent to the passage of time thus falling "into the horrible night". This also creates a sense of irony, as sunsets are usually depicted beautifully, while this one is repulsive. Subsequent personifications employ a similar technique, taking something typically seen in a positive light and depicting it as increasingly listless and unfavorable as time passes. The speaker describes the otherwise pleasant “green of summer” (7) as inevitably “all girded in sheaves / carried to the coffin with white, shaggy beards” (7-8), granting the summer season the ability to physically die in the time representing him as a dying old man through his coffin and beard. This serves a second example of irony, where an otherwise productive and celebratory time of wheat harvest is juxtaposed with the unattractive aspects of aging, further depicting the severity of the time. It also provides a color contrast, as the vibrant “green” of summer clashes with the achromatic and abrasive “shaggy white beard,” further substantiating the unpleasant effects produced by the passage of time. The series of ironic personifications observed in the first two quatrains of the sonnet are constantly presented in this positive light only to succumb to death soon after, like the "tall trees" (5) that have become "devoid of leaves, which previously covered the flock from the heat" (5-6). The speaker clearly makes his point in demonstrating the ravages of time, and until the sonnet's concluding couplet offers little comfort to push him away. In the final part of the sonnet's personification, the narrator chooses that "nothing against Time's scythe can defend / save the race, to defy it when it takes you hence" (13-14), suggesting that the only way to stay alive despite time it is through begetting children to live in one's place. The sonnet also uses the literary trope of metonymy to effectively accentuate the aspects of death due to the passage of time. The aforementioned “coffin” and “shaggy white beard” (7-8) serve as appropriate metonymic symbols in their equation with much larger themes of death and aging, transcending more obvious irony and personification to work on a third rhetorical level. The speaker's implementation of this type of symbol serves further support in his emphasis on the inexorable damage caused by the passage of time, emphasizing the effects of old age and death and explicitly stating “that you among the losses of., 1961.