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    Sonnet 17 William Shakespeare

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    uzi cartier
    In Sonnet 17, Shakespeare addresses an unknown young man and expresses his fear that future generations will not believe the poet's praise of the man's beauty. He worries that his writings will be dismissed as exaggerations once aged. However, Shakespeare suggests that if the young man were to have a child, it would allow both the man and the poet to live on and be remembered through future times.

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    Sonnet 17 William Shakespeare

    Uploaded by

    uzi cartier
    774 views7 pages
    In Sonnet 17, Shakespeare addresses an unknown young man and expresses his fear that future generations will not believe the poet's praise of the man's beauty. He worries that his writings will be dismissed as exaggerations once aged. However, Shakespeare suggests that if the young man were to have a child, it would allow both the man and the poet to live on and be remembered through future times.

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    sonnet 17 william shakespeare

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    In Sonnet 17, Shakespeare addresses an unknown young man and expresses his fear that future generations will not believe the poet's praise of the man's beauty. He worries that his writings will be dismissed as exaggerations once aged. However, Shakespeare suggests that if the young man were to have a child, it would allow both the man and the poet to live on and be remembered through future times.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    774 views7 pages

    Sonnet 17 William Shakespeare

    Uploaded by

    uzi cartier
    In Sonnet 17, Shakespeare addresses an unknown young man and expresses his fear that future generations will not believe the poet's praise of the man's beauty. He worries that his writings will be dismissed as exaggerations once aged. However, Shakespeare suggests that if the young man were to have a child, it would allow both the man and the poet to live on and be remembered through future times.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    POEM

    Sonnet 17
    by William Shakespeare
    Sonnet 17
    Who will believe my verse in time to come,
    If it were filled with your most high deserts?
    Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
    Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.
    If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
    And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
    The age to come would say 'This poet lies;
    Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.'
    So should my papers, yellowed with their age,
    Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,
    And your true rights be termed a poet's rage
    And stretched metre of an antique song:
       But were some child of yours alive that time,
       You should live twice, in it, and in my rhyme.
    POEM ANALYSIS
    i. The speaker/writer (background)

    The speaker is William Shakespeare. In this sonnet, Shakespeare is hoping to guard


    his own legacy by persuading the unknown young man to create a legacy of his own
    (a child). The problem is a lack of credible legacy for both of them, the proposed
    solution is for the unknown young man to have a child.

    ii. Occasion (event)

    The sonnet poems is dedicated to a specific person, a young, unknown man who
    Shakespeare cared for. This sonnet is the last of seventeen that focused on
    procreation.
    iii. The setting

    The setting of this poem is within the poets mind/thoughts and at end of his life.
    POEM ANALYSIS
    iv. Subject matter of the poem/central idea/theme

    • Fear – The speaker fears that his praise will be remembered merely as a "poet’s
    rage" that falsely gave the youth more beauty than the youth actually
    possessed. The speaker also fears that everyone in the future will think “This
    poet lies” even if the poet was able to write the youth clearly and accurately.
    There is no possible way, they’ll think, that his face or this person could’ve
    existed. They were too divine to be real.

    • Truth – The speaker acknowledges the truth of his own writing. It is all purposeless.
    His poems would age with time until they were worthless.
    Shakespeare uses a simile in the tenth line (like old men of less truth than
    tongue) to compare the aged papers too
    old men who always talk but never have anything true to say. The truth of
    the Fair Youth’s beauty would be lost to the ages, written off as the madness
    of a poet. The “meter” of an “ántique song” is all these descriptions would
    turn into. No one would read them and believe them.
    POEM ANALYSIS
    v. Tone (or mood) of the poem

    • The tone of the speaker is very loving, intimate, praising, and meaningful. The tone stays
    the same throughout the sonnet.

    vi. Form of structure of the poem (stanza, rhyme scheme)

    • Sonnet 17 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet, consisting of three quatrains followed

    by a couplet. It follows the form's typical rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg.
    POEM ANALYSIS
    Literary Device

    • Simile:
    “ Though yet Heaven knows it is but as a tomb " (line 3)
    “ Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue," (line 10)

    • Alliteration:
    “ Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue " (line 10)

    • Hyperbole:
    “ Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces." (line 8)

    • Personification :
    “ Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb " (line 3)

    • Metaphor
    “And stretched metre of an antique song “ (line 12)
    POEM ANALYSIS
    Imagery in the poem

    • Shakespeare has created a visual description of the young man’s beauty, for example in line
    5
    “If I could write the beauty of your eyes”. Meaning if he could capture in writing the Youth’s
    beautiful eyes.

    Evaluation of the poem

    • The speaker makes a plea for the youth to realize that the speaker’s writing can only go so
    far. He might do his best and capture the youth accurately but no one in the future is going to
    believe him. They will dismiss his words as the ravings of a madman. No one, the future men
    and women will think, could have such divine features. It is because of this certainty that the
    speaker knows that having a child is the only real option for the youth.

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