19 pages • 38 minutes read
William ShakespeareSonnet 55
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1609A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Allusion
“Sonnet 55” uses three main allusions. The first allusion appears at the beginning of the poem when Shakespeare alludes to the marble and gilded monuments of royalty. This allusion establishes a strong comparison for the poem because these monuments were lavish, excessive, expensive, and required a lot of materials and work to construct. This would be similar to other historical monuments built for kings and royalty, including countless statues, buildings, and other structures.
The second allusion is to the Roman god of war, Mars. When referencing the power of war, Shakespeare doesn’t just describe warfare; instead, he alludes to a classical figure of divinity and power to add more gravitas to war. Similar to the first allusion, this strengthens the comparison between the allusion and the poem, as Shakespeare dramatizes the comparison for maximum effect.
The final allusion comes at the end of the poem when Shakespeare alludes to the final judgment. In this allusion, Shakespeare further dramatizes the situation by arguing how the poem will be the subject’s form of immortality until true immortality arrives in the form of the second coming of Christ. Shakespeare also claims here that Christ will resurrect the fair youth, implying that he will surely go to heaven.
Personification
Another way Shakespeare dramatizes the narrative is by using personification. Shakespeare personifies the monuments at the beginning of the poem, the poem itself, and war. The three instances of personification all relate to the poem’s theme of life and death.
The first instance is early in the poem when Shakespeare writes that the monuments will not outlive the poem. Here, Shakespeare is personifying both the monuments and the poem, and the personification of both creates a comparison between the two that establishes the theme of living. The monuments will not “outlive” (Line 2) the poem, suggesting that the poem is a living entity and that its power comes from the very fact that it lives.
Later in the poem, Shakespeare also personifies war when he writes “Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn” (Line 7). This continues the poem’s trend of inanimate things becoming characters in the poem’s narrative. Part of the effect of this is it achieves the purpose Shakespeare is trying to express: the idea that these objects can act as extensions of a person’s life, thus allowing them to achieve a form of immortality. By doing this same thing with war, Shakespeare adds an antagonist, Mars, that cannot defeat the protagonist, the poem.
Form and Meter
“Sonnet 55,” like all of Shakespeare’s sonnets, follows a strict iambic pentameter form with a traditional English sonnet rhyme scheme. The poem’s rhythm comes through clearly in the line “When wasteful war shall statues overturn” (Line 5). This line also showcases another formal element Shakespeare uses over and over in the poem: alliteration. This line demonstrates alliteration with the repetition of “w” in the first part of the line and “s” in the second part of the line.
In fact, most of the lines in the poem repeat a specific sound. For example, Lines 2 and 10 repeat a strong “p” sound with the words “princes,” “powerful,” “pace,” and “praise”; and Lines 3 and 4 repeat the “s” sound with “shall,” “shine,” “unswept,” “stone,” “besmeared,” and “sluttish.”
Related Titles
By William Shakespeare
