William Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 60 (Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore): Time’s Destruction is Inevitable, The Verse Will Get Away With It

SONNET 60

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend. 

Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.

Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:

   And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
   Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

This is one of the most famous of the William Shakespeare’s sonnets and perhaps the best illustration of the theme of the ravages of time. Each quatrain engages the theme in a unique way, with the destructive force of time redoubling with each successive line. Although the poet seems certain that Time’s destruction is inevitable, he is none the less hopeful that his verse will get away with it in the end.

In quatrain one the flow of time is compared with the incessant beating of the waves against a shore, each wave building in strength and then crashing down again only to be followed by another in its place. The second quatrain uses the sun as a metaphor for human life: it is born and crawls until it reaches its highest point, whereupon it is “crown’d” and then proceeds to fall back into darkness, or death. Line 8 concludes the metaphor with the assertion that Time both gives the gift of life and takes it away again.

The sentiment is repeated in lines 9-12, only more strongly and deeply. Time destroys the perfection of youth: he digs deep wrinkles in a beautiful face and devours the preciousness of nature in its most perfect shape – “And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow.” Nevertheless, the final couplet speaks of the poet’s intention to outsmart Time himself, defying his “cruel hand” by eternalizing the fair lord in his verse. This intention has been expressed in previous sonnets; see sonnets 17-19 for examples.  

Again, William Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 60 may be the best exemplar of the theme of the ravages of time. This theme is prevalent throughout the sonnets, and it takes many different forms, sometimes referring to the destructive power of time in general, other times focusing on the effects of time on a specific character in the sonnets such as the narrator of the fair lord. The narrator seems to be hauntingly preoccupied with the passing of time and everything that it entails, including mortality, memory, inevitability, and change. He is distressed over such things that he has no control over, and at times he appears to be fighting a futile battle against tome itself, just like the sun in line 7 of Sonnet No. 60: “Cooked eclipses “’gainst his glory fight”.

 Finally, some scholars have suggested that the ordering of the sonnets does not in foot to the chronological order of the events they describe. Could this possible rearrangement be a deliberate attempt on Shakespeare’s part to defy the one-way linear progression of time? It is interesting to note that certain sonnets with “special” numbers take up the theme of time themselves. Sonnet 60 is a good example of this: note the pun on “our minutes” in line 2 – the phrase sounds like ‘hour minutes’ – this is Sonnet No. 60, and there are 60 minutes in an hour. For another see Sonnet 12, which begins, “When I do count the clock that tells the time”; as we all know, there are 12 hours on a clock face. Could these just be coincidences?

Key Points:

1. Sonnet No. 60 is a poem by William Shakespeare that explores the inevitability of time's destruction.
2. The poet compares the passage of time to the waves of the ocean, which crash against the shore and eventually wear it away.
3. He also compares time to a scythe, which cuts down all in its path.
4. The poem suggests that time is a powerful force that cannot be stopped.
5. However, the poet also suggests that poetry can escape time's destruction.
6. The poem's final line, "And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand," suggests that the poet's verse will be remembered long after he is gone.

Ardhendu De

Ref:  

1.http://www.shakespeare-online.com

2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_60

3. William Shakespeare : the poems : Prince, F. T. (Frank Templeton), 1912- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/williamshakespea0000prin

4. Shakespearean Criticism, Volume 110 : Criticism of William Shakespeare’s Plays and Poetry, from the First Published Appraisals of Current Evaluations : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/shakespeareancri0000unse_f6s8

5. The complete works of William Shakespeare, with a full and comprehensive life; a history of the early drama; an introduction to each play; the readings of former editions; glossarial and other notes, etc., etc., from the work of Collier, Knight, Dyce, Douce, Halliwell, Hunter, Richardson, Verplanck, and Hudson. Edited by George Long Duyckinck : Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/completeworksofw00shakuoft