Sample Sonnet Analysis
Sonnet 64


PROSE PARAPHRASE

When I have seen the wealth and pride of splendor of long ago despoiled by the passage of time; when I see once lofty towers that are now tumbled down, and even brass, which is supposed to last forever, altered by the mortality of time's passing; when I have seen the hungry ocean wash up to encroach upon the shoreline, alternating back and forth between loss and gain; when I have seen this interchanging flux between states, or those states themselves (with the possible additional meaning of political states) brought to decay, then pain has made me think that time will also take away my love. This thought is like death to me, and can only choose to weep for the possession of that which it fears it will lose later.

FORMAL, LOGICAL, AND SYNTACTICAL RELATIONSHIPS

The sonnet's formal structure is largely reinforced by the logical and syntactical structure; each of the three quatrains begins with the same extended conditional "When I have seen" clause and contains the completion of the thought expressed by the clause. However, the first quatrain also contains a second conditional "When" clause (lines 3-4), and the last two lines of the third quatrain introduce the "That" result clause for all the foregoing lines. The repetition of the four conditional "when" clauses, and especially the three anaphoric extended "When I have seen" clauses, build up expectation for the result clause and final resolution. The "When" clauses by their very nature emphasize the changes brought about by the passing of time, for the poet is stockpiling examples of things that he has seen. The couplet begins a new syntactical as well as logical unit that expounds upon the thought expressed in lines 11 and 12. The sonnet can also be divided into eight and six lines on the basis of a shift from concrete imagery to abstract thought, and from examples to a conclusion about the evidence offered by those examples. Of the three enjambments in the poem, two give the reader a sense of having made a false start and having to try again in a different direction: those between lines 5 and 6 and lines 13 and 14. The mental restructuring that these enjambments compel the reader to do reflects the sonnet's concern with the theme of the unavoidability of change.

PATTERNS OF DICTION

The sonnet's theme of mutability brought about by the powers of time is reinforced by its dominant motifs. The motif of destruction appears in the "fell" hand of time and its "defac(ing)" powers, the "down-razed" towers, "loss," and "ruin." The sonnet contains related images of death, which is itself a result of such destruction: the thought of this change is "as a death," the outworn age is "buried," and state is confounded to "decay." The tremendous power of destruction is evoked in the image of the ravenous "hungry" ocean and "mortal rage." The words "gain advantage," "kingdom," "win," and "slave" concern the motif of war, itself a powerful and destructive force. The flux and interchange that accompany the process of destruction appear in the reciprocality of the "firm soil" and the "wat'ry main," in the antimetabole of "Increasing store with loss and loss with store," and in the "interchange of state" which is itself subject to decay. ("State" in line 10 may mean condition, or it may mean "greatness" in a general sense or a political state in a more specific sense. If it means the latter, its use here would tie in with the "rich proud cost" of line 2.) Time itself, which appears as a mixed metaphor because it is a personified unmetaphorical element, carries on destructive activities: its "fell hand" defaces and it will come to take the poet's love away. The symmetrical arrangement of the words "eternal" and "mortal" in line 4 reinforces both the sense of conflict and interchange between these two states and the ultimate victory of time with its power of mortality, for brass, which is meant to be eternal, becomes a slave to "mortal rage."

METER

The extreme metrical evenness of this sonnet takes on a sense of almost inexorable regularity of movement which ironically contrasts with the sonnet's theme of mutability. Even the pause at the ends of the lines occur regularly, with the exception of lines 1 and 5 and the couplet. Two of the irregular lines reflect on their content: the irregular meter of line 7 suggests the fitful recession of the waves from the shore, and the beginning trochee in line 11 for "Ruin" reflects both the wrenching and "down-razing" powers of ruin. Irregular meter prevails in the couplet, where the change suggests the poet's turning from the placidity of his reflections to their rather frightening implications for real life. Stresses in the couplet emphasize the related words "this," "that," and "death" (which are also associated by the "th" alliterative), and assonance in "have" and "that." The stresses on "firm soil" in line 7 help to strengthen the sense of solidity attached to these terms.

ALLITERATION, ASSONANCE, AND RHYME

The regularity in the metrics of this sonnet is matched by the predominantly regular use of a long "a" rhyme in each of the quatrains: "defaced," "age," "down-razed," "rage," "gain," "main," "state," "decay," "ruminate," and away." Alliterative sequences occur throughout the sonnet: "fell hand defaced" (the similarity in sound here emphasizes the relationship between fatality and destruction), "seen such interchange of state" (assonance occurs here as well), "state itself confounded to decay;" "sometime lofty towers," "brass eternal slave," "win of the wat'ry main," "Increasing stare with loss and loss with store (assonance occurs here as well). Many of these alliterative sequences are quite complex, containing as many as five alliterative patterns weaving in and out together. The interchangeability between the two or more alliterative elements at work in these sequences is suggestive of the sonnet's theme of mutability and exemplifies the image of give and take in line 8. This "interchange" brought about by alliteration and assonance works against the regularity of the meter and the repeated "a" rhymes in the lines. The slight dissonance in the di-syllabic rhyme of "defaced" and "down-razed" creates a slight jarring which is also suggestive of the imperfection attendant upon mutability. Alliteration and assonance which occur in two elements that are widely separated in the same line create a kind of tension by pulling the line both apart in terms of proximity and together in terms of similarity of sound, as in "slave . . . rage," "proud . . . outworn," "thought . . . cannot," "ruin . . . ruminate," and "Time . . . take." Alliterative pairs also serve to tie in the first two words of line twelve ("That Time") with the beginning of the couplet ("This thought").