SONNET XV

Sonnet XV belongs to the section called “procreational sonnets” or the “marriage collection”, addressed to the fair youth.

Looking at the layout, the reader can notice the song that follows the Shakespearean or Elizabethan model. Indeed, there are fourteen lines organised into three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. Therefore, the intelligent reader knows that every quatrain will discuss an aspect of the same problem. 

Right from the first stanza, you understand one of the most important themes of the sonnet is the time and its effects. Indeed, the concept of “grows” reminds to the idea of the passing time, but it is shown as something negative, because it destroys beauty and perfection, that are illusions and last only a little moment. 

In the second quatrain, there is a parallelism between men and plans.  The semantic field includes lots of words connected with nature (plants, increase, sky, sap, decrease). Again, there is a negative vision of time: both men and plans, growing up, become beautiful (in particular in their youth), but then time passes and ruins their beauty. 

There is something in common between the first two quatrains and it is more evident thanks to the repetition of “when” at the beginning of each stanza.

However, the repetition is not present in the third quatrain and this makes the reader think something will change, as generally happens in Shakespeare's sonnets.

The speaking voice refers to the fair youth and underlines his beauty in the middle of his youth. Yet, the figure of the Time appears again as a destroyer.  The poet creates a personification (as you can notice in the word “Time” with a capital T) and says Time collaborates with Decay to put an end to everything. Shakespeare uses a symbol to focus the attention on the decline: the sun that rises in the morning and disappears at the end of the day. In the final rhyming couplet, the personification of Time appears as a thief, who robs the fair youth’s beauty, but the speaker will give it back to him. Indeed, the “lyrical I” gives life to the fair youth and makes him immortal, fighting against time. 

Considering the denotative analysis, you can note the poem follows the Shakespearean pattern and therefore, it has the following rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

An important element of syntax is the repetition of the same word order at the beginning of the first two stanza: “When I consider…”, “When I perceive…”. It underlines the relation between the two quatrains, which are characterized by the speaker’s considerations about the effects of the time in plants and men.

The third stanza stars with “then” and has a more personal theme. Indeed, the poet refers to the fair youth directly and expresses a more complex and negative vision of time. The semantic field includes some words that are opposites: day-night, youth-time.

In the rhyming couplet, the word you is repeated three times and this add meaning and importance to the word. Indeed, the speaking voice makes a promise: he will give the fair youth a new life, that will last forever, because his love is eternal.

To sum up, the sonnet has a specific structure, based on three quatrains, that reports lots of argumentations and considerations, which come to a conclusion: the fair youth is immune at the action of time, because the poem makes him immortal.