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Sonnet 60 Response

In this poem analysis, the author makes the following key points: 1) William Shakespeare's sonnet 60 explores the progression of human life and the effects of time through similes and personification. 2) The poem compares human experience to waves crashing on a shore and the rising and setting of the sun to represent aging and mortality. 3) Shakespeare uses techniques like similes, metaphors, and personification to portray time as a powerful force that both gives and takes away human life and beauty. 4) The poem concludes by suggesting that while time is inevitable, one's legacy and the impact of their life can transcend mortality.

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277 views3 pages

Sonnet 60 Response

In this poem analysis, the author makes the following key points: 1) William Shakespeare's sonnet 60 explores the progression of human life and the effects of time through similes and personification. 2) The poem compares human experience to waves crashing on a shore and the rising and setting of the sun to represent aging and mortality. 3) Shakespeare uses techniques like similes, metaphors, and personification to portray time as a powerful force that both gives and takes away human life and beauty. 4) The poem concludes by suggesting that while time is inevitable, one's legacy and the impact of their life can transcend mortality.

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Kyra Decker

AP English Literature and Composition

O’Meara 1

1 November 2020

Poetry Response: Sonnet 60

In “Sonnet 60”, William Shakespeare explores the progression of human life and the

effect that time has on the human psyche. Throughout the poem, Shakespeare utilizes similes and

personification to build towards an overall theme that questions the importance of one’s legacy

in comparison to their mortality.

“Sonnet 60” begins with the speaker utilizing similes in order to compare the time

experienced by humans to waves crashing upon the shore, each occurring repeatedly one after

the other. Shakespeare employs similes in order to compare human life to multiple things in

nature, next comparing human life to the sun: the sun rises, and as it makes its way to the top of

the sky at noon, it begins to eclipse. In the next section of the poem, time is described in a more

detailed way, and finally the couplet at the end of the poem concludes the journey with the

phrase “Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.”

Obviously, one of the literary techniques used by Shakespeare throughout the poem is the

simile, which is used in the comparison between human life and the waves and the sun. The first

two lines of the poem is a simile: “Like as the waves make towards the pebbl’d shore, so do our

minutes hasten to their end.” This beginning of the poem allows Shakespeare to introduce the

idea of the contemplation of death, which is represented by the waves crashing against the shore.

The concept of aging is further explored throughout the poem, beginning with the line containing

the word nativity. In the next few lines, Shakespeare compares the human experience and
lifetime to the cycle of the sun. The human life “crawls to maturity”, rising towards old age until

it eventually passes. In this progression, nativity dreads the idea of further maturing and

ultimately dying. These lines show how powerful and destructive time can be: within only a few

moments, human life can be overtaken without any prior warnings.

In addition to the use of metaphors and similes, Shakespeare uses personification

throughout the poem: “and time that gave doth now his gift confound.” This personification can

be seen especially in the section of the poem wherein nativity is compared to the sun; the concept

of human life is given human characteristics, and it can also perform human actions. “Crawls”,

“his glory fight”, “his gift”, and “feeds” are all examples of personification that are used in the

sonnet. While personification is usually used to get the audience to sympathize with something

one would normally not, Shakespeare doesn’t necessarily do this. In fact, his use of

personification sort of works against this purpose, as he presents time as being a powerful and

destructive force that people won’t be compelled to sympathize with, and they simply won’t be

able to find similarities between themselves and the power dynamic presented in the poem. The

idea that time can both give and take away paints it as an extremely powerful subject; in the

latter half of the poem, the speaker also expresses that he wishes to maintain the beauty that

comes along with youth, yet he cannot have this. Time is what gave him that beauty, and yet

time will be the thing that takes away that beauty.

The shift in this poem occurs right before the couplet is introduced at the end. The poem

transitions from “And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow” to “and yet to times in hope my

verse shall stand”. The first line basically insinuates that nothing can get in the way of time, as

time is one of the most powerful and one of the only forces that has this great of an effect on

human life. Then, in the next line, the speaker presents how he hopes that he will be able to
overcome the power that time has over his life. Prior to this line, the speaker’s attitude towards

the passage of time and the inevitability of death has been one of acceptance yet dread; however,

he now is hopeful that he will be able to break out of this mold and challenge the grounding

nature of mortality.

Overall, Shakespeare’s purpose in writing this sonnet is to emphasize the importance of

human life despite the mortality that humans face. In comparing the sun to human life,

Shakespeare nods towards the idea that just because mortality is inevitable does not mean that

one’s lifetime on earth is any less important. Just like how the sun sets, human life draws to a

close, yet this does not mean that this is the end. Once someone’s life is over, their legacy

continues living after them, becoming just as important as they were when they were alive.

Ultimately, Shakespeare wants to emphasize that the legacy one leaves behind is still extremely

important, as it has the power to shape the world. While time is being described as an almighty

force, life and legacy are promoted as being even stronger, some of the only forces that have the

power to overtake the negative aspects of time.

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