Shakespeare’s fifth sonnet has a powerful message, about inner beauty and how it stays constant even if superficial beauty fades. The first quatrain is about how the beauty of his benefactor or his ‘crush’, and that this man attracts the gaze of everyone, and his good looks cause him to excel. The second quatrain is concerning that the “never resting time”, goes on and the man begins to age (5). The man is then trapped in winter, or aged. Winter confounds him because he cannot become young again. Shakespeare reveals that the man may not be as youthful or attractive, due to the winter that has come that leaves starkness everywhere. However Shakespeare third quatrain conveys that even though there may be no resemblance of the outer beauty that was once there, there is still the liquid sap or “liquid prisoner” that is frozen instead the walls of ice. This sap remains the same. The meaning of the final couplet is that, even though the winter or age can take away the outer beauty, the substance, the personality, the inner beauty remains the same even if the outer beauty changes.
The literary devices do help establish a theme and tone, which helps the reader to understand this sonnet. The extended metaphor in this sonnet between winter and age, and summer and youth made it clearer on what was happening to the man and how Shakespeare’s tone reassured the man, because if time changed him, he would still be the same man. And that his inner beauty would never change. Shakespeare’s resaasuring words such as “ their substance still lives sweet”, let the the benefactor know that his substance, his soul, his essence still lives on. Also from this sonnet the reader can tell that Shakespeare looks upon his subject kindly with his words like, “ gentle work did frame… lovely… lusty” thes words refer to the time before the benefactor aged . Buts the way that Spakespeare refers to the benefactor after he had aged is still the same.
The theme is about inner beauty and that it does not change no matter what age of the man is. Other literary devices that help establish the theme is the diction, with words like confound, gaze, distillation, and bareness really expresses how the man was and what his appearance looks like once he has begun to age. It also demonstrates how the appearance of the benefactor really worried the benefactor. The final couplet is the main evidence behind the theme because it basically tells the correlation between age and beauty.
The literary devices do help establish a theme and tone, which helps the reader to understand this sonnet. The extended metaphor in this sonnet between winter and age, and summer and youth made it clearer on what was happening to the man and how Shakespeare’s tone reassured the man, because if time changed him, he would still be the same man. And that his inner beauty would never change. Shakespeare’s resaasuring words such as “ their substance still lives sweet”, let the the benefactor know that his substance, his soul, his essence still lives on. Also from this sonnet the reader can tell that Shakespeare looks upon his subject kindly with his words like, “ gentle work did frame… lovely… lusty” thes words refer to the time before the benefactor aged . Buts the way that Spakespeare refers to the benefactor after he had aged is still the same.
The theme is about inner beauty and that it does not change no matter what age of the man is. Other literary devices that help establish the theme is the diction, with words like confound, gaze, distillation, and bareness really expresses how the man was and what his appearance looks like once he has begun to age. It also demonstrates how the appearance of the benefactor really worried the benefactor. The final couplet is the main evidence behind the theme because it basically tells the correlation between age and beauty.