Sonnet 19 Figurative Language

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Humans innately love control. Power over someone else, over a situation and over their own life provides great satisfaction when accomplished and great aggravation when out of their sphere of influence. In William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 19, Shakespeare addresses one of the most irritating things that humans lack control over, time itself. Through Shakespeare’s varied uses of animal imagery, meter, literary devices and poetic shifts, Shakespeare is able to convey the love that he has for his friend and the power he has over time as a poet. The speaker begins the poem by directly addressing the personified figure of time. This is important as he/she now has a physical entity to attack and to use as a scapegoat. It is also important to note the words that Shakespeare …show more content…
The negative connotations attached to Time portray it as an evil enemy and justifies the speaker’s right to attack it. Another salient device used in the opening lines is that of meter. Although subtle, Shakespeare uses the stressed word “Pluck” when it should be unstressed in perfect iambic pentameter (3). The purpose in this is to emphasize the imperative action verb of the sentence and to highlight Time as the one doing the plucking and therefore has supreme power over the tiger, portrayed later in the line. In addition to a slight deviation in meter, Shakespeare uses slant rhyme in lines two and four with “brood” and “blood”. This is significant because it highlights and gives emphasis to two very important lines, of which both seem paradoxical. The first slant rhyme, emphasizing the second line, conveys that the earth, which procreates all things, will also have to devour everything she creates since everything is sent to the grave with time. The second slant rhyme brings emphasis to the fourth line, containing the paradox of the phoenix. The phoenix is an immortal creature, being able to always be reborn from its own ashes, but despite this seemingly immortal state,
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