The sonnets written during the Elizabethan period were based on the impact of time,love,beauty and mutability on the lives of human beings. Being a poet of this time Shakespeare uses all these themes in his 154 sonnets ,but he uses them in his own way. They unlock the fathomless soul of the genius. However, they are not overtly autobiographical for Shakespeare adds a ray of fancy to render them in an objective way that elicits our praise. Time appears as an arch-enemy in the world of Shakespearean sonnets which tries to siphon off the cream of life and hurl men to nothingness. In them we find a poetic tug-of-war with the onslaughts of Time.
Dympna Callaghan remarks, "Shakespeare’s treatment of time in the sonnets essentially rehearses fundamentally Ovidian themes, namely the progress of mutability, loss, grief, and death that constitute the central themes of Ovid’s great mythic work, the Metamorphoses. In Ovid, metamorphosis is the mythic equivalent of the movement, the shifts and changes that occur over the course of time, to bring about decay, death, and, ultimately, the disintegration of form that is the fate of all organic matter. The changes Ovid describes invariably involve a diminished rather than enhanced human identity – healthy and attractive young people are regularlyturned into plants and animals, far less glorious renditions of their
former selves."
Shakespearen sonnets are an attempt to immortalize love in a mortal world which is constantly threatened by the ravages of time.In sonnet no 18 ,shakespear is frank in his admission about how time wrecks different natural elements .The "darling buds of may" are shaken ,where as "summer's lease hath all too short a date."The gold complexion of the sun even dims.The power of this time is also estabilshed on the other sonnet Let me not to the marriage of true minds.Here ,again the poet shows how time kills rosy lips and cheeks.In fact,there is no effort by the poet to deny the grim fact that time desoys all things.The ravages caused by the time is also felt by the poet in his personal life.He perceives how time has played on him and anticipates aptly in the sonnet That time of year the decay that will nring to him ere long.
Yet,Shakespeare's sonnets are not only useless mourning over that which cannot be averted.He is quite assured that love is not time"s fool.In Sonnet no73,the poet refers to the restorative power of love amidst the destructive forces of time.He hopes to immortalise his love, -"So long as men can breathe ,or eyes can see.So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.'
Dympna Callaghan remarks, "Shakespeare’s treatment of time in the sonnets essentially rehearses fundamentally Ovidian themes, namely the progress of mutability, loss, grief, and death that constitute the central themes of Ovid’s great mythic work, the Metamorphoses. In Ovid, metamorphosis is the mythic equivalent of the movement, the shifts and changes that occur over the course of time, to bring about decay, death, and, ultimately, the disintegration of form that is the fate of all organic matter. The changes Ovid describes invariably involve a diminished rather than enhanced human identity – healthy and attractive young people are regularlyturned into plants and animals, far less glorious renditions of their
former selves."
Shakespearen sonnets are an attempt to immortalize love in a mortal world which is constantly threatened by the ravages of time.In sonnet no 18 ,shakespear is frank in his admission about how time wrecks different natural elements .The "darling buds of may" are shaken ,where as "summer's lease hath all too short a date."The gold complexion of the sun even dims.The power of this time is also estabilshed on the other sonnet Let me not to the marriage of true minds.
Yet,Shakespeare's sonnets are not only useless mourning over that which cannot be averted.He is quite assured that love is not time"s fool.In Sonnet no73,the poet refers to the restorative power of love amidst the destructive forces of time.He hopes to immortalise his love, -"So long as men can breathe ,or eyes can see.So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.'
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