Sonnet 19: “Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce Tiger’s jaws…”

19

Devouring time blunt thou the Lion’s paws,

And make the earth devour her own sweet brood,

Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce Tiger’s jaws,

And burn the long liv’d Phoenix in her blood,

Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet’st,

And do what e’er thou wilt swift-footed time

To the wide world and all her fading sweets;

But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:

O carve not with thy hours my love’s fair brow,

Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen,

Him in thy course untainted do allow,

For beauty’s pattern to succeeding men.

    Yet do thy worst old Time despite thy wrong,

    My love shall in my verse ever live young.

“What’s going on here? In Sonnet 18 we had a change in theme, a change in tone, a change in relationships. Now we have a dramatic change in style. Shakespeare mimics the style and thought of the poet, Ovid, reaching back to ancient Rome. One might call it grandiloquent. Maybe even bombastic. Why this style? Why now? Perhaps Y.M. was quite pleased with the adoration of Sonnet 18. Perhaps he asked, ‘I really like your sonnets—could you write some more?’ Is this the result? Like throwing gasoline on a fire?

“…I keep going back to read this sonnet and each time I get different takes on it. My first impression was that W. was encouraged by Y.M. and wound up trying too hard…But now I wonder. Is the sonnet a little joke? Is there a smirk to go along with the couplet? There’s something jarring about that Yet do thy worst old Time after all the protestations about not doing his worst. It sounds like W. is saying, “Ha, ha, only kidding. I really don’t care what you do, I can do better!” After all, what else could he have been thinking? Twelve lines begging Father Time not to age Y.M. How was that going to work? The suspense was building, what were we to expect? Not, ‘Spare him, he’s going to have a child.’ We gave that up. What then? ‘Spare him, make him a god?’ Not likely. Or ‘Spare him because I love him?’ That doesn’t seem to work out too well for most people. The couplet must have been a surprise. I think a smile just might have been expected.”

—Shakespeare’s Sonnets Among His Private Friends, p.52-54 (publication date 10/1/21)