Free College Essays - Analysis of William Shakespeares Sonnet 19

William Shakespeare is considered to be one of the most significant English poets and dramatists of all time. Shakespeare is credited with writing 36-38 dramatic works and many sonnets. In most of the sonnets the form is of three separate quatrains and a closing couplet for emotional and dramatic climax. Some sonnets seem open and addressed to the world. Others are too cryptic and personal to be intelligible. Sonnets 18-125 deal gradually with many themes associate with a handsome young man. The poet enjoys his friendship and promises to immortalize him through his poems. â€Å"Sonnet 19" is addressed to time and is dedicated to a very special friend. In the first quatrain of the sonnet, the author talks about the devastating effects of time: it affects everything and nothing can escape its impact. The poet directly addresses time and vividly describes its effect on the sharp claws of the lion. Time wears away their strength, spoiling and eroding them. Shakespeare then writes that time forces the earth to â€Å"...devoure her owne fweet brood† (2). Everything that is born of the earth return...