Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 55

Leif Park Jordan
Ms. Peifer
10 IB Hour 4
19 February 2009
Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 55
Shakespeare’s purpose in his Sonnet 55 is two-fold: first, he wants to emphasize the importance, strength, and general goodness of poetry when compared to other, more worldly things, and second, he wants to compliment the subject of his poem, praising them in a way that implies rather than directly states their excellence. This purpose is achieved through allusions to various religions, alternating destructive and complementary diction, symbolism, and seemingly paradoxical comparisons.
There are several allusions in Sonnet 55, ranging from outright name-dropping to more subtle references to Judgment Day. First, Shakespeare references Roman mythology when he writes, “Nor Mars with his sword…shall burn” (7). This allusion helps show the sort of destruction that will occur in everything but poetry. Mars is the god of war, slaughtering everything in his path, and saying that the poem will survive this kind of destruction speaks novels about its power. The second religious allusion takes place when Shakespeare writes, “That wear this world out to the ending doom. So, till the judgement that yourself arise,” (12-13). This is a reference to the biblical judgement day; the end of the world. Saying that the poem will survive until the very end of the world implies that it is extremely strong and resilient.
The destructive diction of the poem gives Shakespeare’s message in much the same way the allusions do, by showing how resilient poetry is. Shakespeare uses words such as “wasteful war,” (5) “overturn,” (5) and “war’s quick fire,” (7) to show how most things are destroyed through war and strife. This helps show that poetry is powerful for being able to survive it. The poem’s complementary diction helps with the poem’s other purpose: to compliment the subject. It uses words like “shine more bright,” (3) “praise,” (10) and “lover’s eyes,” (14) all of which show Shakespeare’s affection for the subject.
There is some symbolism in Sonnet 55 which helps Shakespeare’s purpose. The statues referenced when Shakespeare writes “When wasteful war shall statues overturn,” (5) represent material and worldly representations of the subject such as portraits, statues, and so on. These lines show that material representations of the subject will eventually be destroyed, but the poem will live on afterward. This shows, again, how important and strong poetry is.
Early in the sonnet, there is a paradoxical comparison that makes the reader think more carefully about the poem, increasing its impact. Shakespeare writes “But you shall shine more bright in these contents / than unswept stone besmear’d with sluttish time,” (3-4) which is a paradox at first glance. Shakespeare is saying that the subject is more bright than something that is dirty and smudged, which isn’t much of a compliment at all. This passage, however, makes the reader focus more carefully, which in turn leads them to think more carefully about the poem.

More thoughts on the usefulness of this blog

As any reader of this blog can clearly see, I don't update this much. I've ended up turning in most of my assignments in directly even with the blog, since it's not worth the effort to type it out after I've already written it out by hand. Even when I have something typed out, I don't usually take the time to even copy paste it into the blog, since it's already been turned in. Essentially, this means this blog hasn't seen much use since the end of first quarter, since we haven't even gone to the computer lab to work on it.
I definitely see the reason for making the blogs - it gets us more involved with technology, and I think it's a good step, but I'm not entirely certain that it's worth doing until we have constant access to a computer at all times at school, instead of having to go to the lab. At some point I think I'll upload everything that I already have typed up, but honestly, I doubt many people besides Ms. Peifer are actually reading this blog.