Sonnet Lx

Question 1

What does Shakespeare deal with in this poem, and what is the main occurring theme?

Answer 1

He deals with the effects of time on youth and beauty.

Theme of transience

Question 2

What is the structure of the poem?

Answer 2

three quatrains and a rhyming couplet, using the iambic pentameter.

Question 3

Q: What is the significance of the waves in the first quatrain of Sonnet 60?

Answer 3

A: The waves represent time and its continuous movement towards the metaphorical “pebbled shore,” symbolizing death.

Question 4

How does Shakespeare use personification in Sonnet 60?

Answer 4

A: Shakespeare personifies time as waves and minutes, describing them with human characteristics like “toil” and “contend.”

Question 5

Q: What does “the pebbled shore” metaphorically represent in Sonnet 60 in the first quatrain?

Answer 5

A: Death

Question 6

Q: In Sonnet 60, what does Shakespeare use as a metaphor for human life?

Answer 6

A: The sun

Question 7

Q: What does the metaphor “crooked eclipses” represent in Sonnet 60?

Answer 7

Old age.

Question 8

Q: How does Shakespeare personify time in Sonnet 60’s third quatrain?

Answer 8

A: As a ravaging monster, probably the Grim Reaper.

Question 9

Q: What does “delves the parallels in beauty’s brow” signify in Sonnet 60?

Answer 9

A: Time causing wrinkles and aging.

Question 10

Q: What does the “scythe” symbolize in Sonnet 60?

Answer 10

A: Death’s power.

Question 11

Q: What is the volta in Sonnet 60?

Answer 11

A: The change of thought and mood in the final rhyming couplet.

Question 12

How does the poet defy time in Sonnet 60’s final couplet?

Answer 12

A: By stating that his verse will continue to praise the worth of the beloved despite time’s cruelty.

Question 13

Q: What literary device does Shakespeare employ when he compares time to waves in Sonnet 60?

Answer 13

A: SIMILIE

Question 14

Q: What does “sequent toil all forwards do contend” mean in Sonnet 60?

Answer 14

A: It means that all humans are constantly moving towards their inevitable death.

Question 15

Q: How does Shakespeare use the metaphor of the sun in Sonnet 60?

Answer 15

A: He uses it to symbolize human life, from birth to maturity and eventual decline.

Question 16

Q: What does “crooked eclipses” represent in Sonnet 60?

Answer 16

A: It symbolizes the effects of old age on human life.

Question 17

How does Shakespeare use the concept of time in Sonnet 60 to convey the inevitability of death?

Answer 17

A: He personifies time as a relentless force that ravages beauty and eventually leads to death.

Question 18

Q: What is the significance of the “ravaging monster” metaphor in Sonnet 60?

Answer 18

A: It emphasizes the destructive nature of time and its relentless pursuit of aging and death.

Question 19

Q: What does “nothing stands but for his scythe to mow” suggest in Sonnet 60?

Answer 19

A: It suggests that everything, including beauty and life, eventually succumbs to death’s power

Question 20

Q: What is the purpose of the volta in Sonnet 60?

Answer 20

A: It marks a shift in tone and introduces the poet’s resolution to defy time through his verse.

Question 21

Q: What is the central message conveyed by Shakespeare in Sonnet 60?
.

Answer 21

A: Despite the inevitability of aging and death, the poet’s verse will immortalize the worth and beauty of the beloved

Question 22

First Quatrain

Answer 22

Shakespeare’s sonnet starts with the poet comparing the passing of time to the movement of the waves: “Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore.” Human life in the same way is slowly moving towards its send, according to Shakespeare. In this simile, time is represented by waves and minutes. Here, the waves are personified since they are described with human characteristics— “toil” and “contend”. Furthermore, “the pebbled shore is a metaphor for death. As soon as they are born, all humans are heading the same way towards their death - “in sequent toil all forwards do contend”.

Question 23

Second quatrain

Answer 23

In the second quatrain, Shakespeare uses the sun as a metaphor for human life. It is born “Nativity” and “crawls” (like a baby). Shakespeare describes Nativity as the “main of light”, which refers to an expanse of sunlight that illuminates the whole ocean. Here, the focus shifts from the passage of time to the passage of human life, using the metaphor of the sun during the span of a day: birth is seen as occurring in a sea of light, implying a solar influence, whilst then it is crowned with maturity in the sky, to be later darkened by the “crooked eclipses” of age, as time retracts his original gift..

Question 24

2nd

Answer 24

The poet makes use of transferred epithet or hypallage, “crooked eclipses” where the epithet “crooked” should qualify an old person rather than the eclipses for effect. “Crooked eclipses”, representing old age, try to fight against death, yet all in vain. Time that gives man life “doth now his gift confound”.

Question 25

3rd quatrain

Answer 25

In the third quatrain, time is personified as a ravaging monster, who digs trenches in beauty… “Time… delves the parallels in beauty’s brow”, devours nature, and mows down all that stands with his scythe. The parallels are metaphor for wrinkles and beauty is personified - beauty’s brow. Time makes man age and nothing can escape the tyranny of death’s grasp; everyone must give in to death’s power: “And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow”

Question 26

rhyming couplet

Answer 26

We see a volta or change of thought and in mood and diction in the final rhyming couplet, the poet he says that his verse will “stand”/ defy time, and will continue to praise the “worth” of the beloved despite the “cruel hand” (synecdoche) of time.