Question

Which of the following best describes the function of “Time” in the following poem, Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare?

Answer 1

The speaker declares that his beloved’s loveliness will live on forever through his poetry, unlike the short-lived summer season.

Explanation:

William Shakespeare was well known for his poems, till sonnet 17 he talks about suggesting his love to procreate, so the beauty of the lover is carried generation after generation.

However, from sonnet 18, Shakespeare inks the beauty of his love using his poetry as he believes time kills the beauty. The speaker declares that his beloved’s loveliness will live on forever through his poetry, unlike the short-lived summer season.

"But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

These lines explains the function of time, a nature that kills another and cannot be stopped. There is no eternity to anything under the flow of time and therefore the poet decides to ink the beauty as his poetry can be read generation after generation understanding the beauty of his lover.