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Transcript

SONNET 22: Theme and Tone

Sneak Peak:

William Shakespeare is a very famous poet who writes about what he is experiencing. He writes mostly about love and has influenced many people around the world.

SONNET 22

Theme of the sonnet is all about his love towards the young man. The persona seems to be "insecure" about his age but he knows, no matter what, his love will never fade because they share one heart toward the addressee.

LINES 1 & 2

William Shakespeare

My glass shall not persuade me I am old

So long as youth and thou are of one date

I won’t believe my mirror when it tells me I’m old, as long as you’re still young

1 My glass shall not persuade me I am old

2 So long as youth and thou are of one date;

3 But when in thee time’s furrows I behold,

4 Then look I death my days should expiate.

5 For all that beauty that doth cover thee

6 Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,

7 Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me.

8 How can I then be elder than thou art?

9 O therefore, love, be of thyself so wary

10As I, not for myself, but for thee will,

11 Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary

12 As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.

13 Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;

14 Thou gav’st me thine not to give back again.

Lines 9, 10, 11, 12

glass=mirror

date=age

Lines 3 & 4

“But when in thee time's furrows I behold, then look I death

my days should expiate,” the speaker is saying that when the young man starts to age, or as Shakespeare puts it ,“time’s furrows,” he will be okay with dying and paying for what he has done during his life supported by,” Look I death my days should expiate,” with expiate meaning that he will make up what bad things he did in life in the “other life”.

The next four lines tell the young man that the speaker is looking over him but he still must be careful, “O, therefore, love, be of thyself so wary As I, not for myself, but for thee will; Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary As tender nurse her baby from faring ill.” The speaker tells the man that because he believes that because they have the same heart, the speaker will look over it as carefully as a nurse caring for a baby as long as he is alive. In the first line of the four, it is telling him to be wary of himself, saying that the speaker cannot completely look over him. This may be foreshadowing that he will die because a nurse always looks over a baby, but when you’re dead you cannot look over it.

Lines 5,6,7 & 8

The next four lines are talking to the handsome, young man about how beautiful he is but that they share beauty in their hearts so why is the speaker older than the young man? “For all that beauty that doth cover thee Is but the seemly raiment of my heart, Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me: How can I then be elder than thou art?” The speaker believes that because he has as much internal beauty as the young man’s external beauty, then he should be as beautiful outside as well as inside.

furrows= wrinkles or lines in skin

expiate= make amends

In conclusion, Shakespeare talks about how old he is and how young and handsome the other person is. He feels he should be as beautiful as the young man because they share a heart. Then, as the sonnet goes on, the poet’s anger seems to increase until the last two lines where it seems he threatens the young man.

Lines 13 & 14

The persona is realizing how to handle the reality of being old.

The last two lines, “Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain; Thou gavest me thine, not to give back again.,” seems to be warning the young man about something because it seems like the old man is angry at the young man for being so beautiful. Because the man thinks they should be the same, this might be saying that the young man may not actually be young, and that he may die when the speaker dies. Because they share a heart, the speaker thinks they will share death. These two lines may have been a threat to keep the young man away form him, possibly being angry at him in real life.

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