Sonnet 11: As Fast As Thou Shalt Wane, So Fast Thou Grow’st

Sonnet 11: As Fast As Thou Shalt Wane, So Fast Thou Grow’st

By William Shakespeare

As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow’st
In one of thine, from that which thou departest;
And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow’st,
Thou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest.
Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increase;
Without this folly, age, and cold decay:
If all were minded so, the times should cease
And threescore year would make the world away.
Let those whom nature hath not made for store,
Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish:
Look whom she best endowed, she gave the more;
Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish:
She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby,
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.

Summary of Sonnet 11: As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow’st

  • Popularity of “Sonnet 11: “Sonnet 11” is another suggestive poem written by globally acclaimed and famed writer, playwright and actor William Shakespeare. It is a part of a series of sonnets written for an unknown youth. The poem revolves around the idea of procreation. The keen speaker urges his friend to get married and have another version of his beauty by having children. However, the popularity of the poem echoes in the usage of common themes.
  • “Sonnet 11” As a Representative of Love: This poem is a proclamation of love and care. It starts when the speaker tries to make his friend understand the cyclic nature of life. He fears that his friend will grow old with time. Therefore, he should marry and have offspring. He believes the children will always remind him of his beautiful youth in his old age. As the poem continues, the speaker argues that his friend will become more attractive and wittier with childbirth. However, he would only experience age, death and foolishness without it. To make him grab the idea, the speaker further adds that the human race would have been extinct if no one had children. Toward the end, the writer praises his friend’s beauty, saying that mother nature has blessed his friend with the best. Now, in return, he should reproduce this beauty and let his race continue.
  • Major Themes in “Sonnet 11”: The importance of being married, love and nature’s role in man’s life are the major themes of the poem. The poem presents an argument; the speaker argues that his friend should marry to make his beauty lasting. He believes that nature has blessed some with enchanting attraction, and his friend is one of them. Unfortunately, his friend cannot understand what nature wants from him. Therefore, the speaker takes the lead and tries to make him understand why it is important to have children. While doing so, he touches on the keynote that every living creature has to taste death, and so does his friend. Therefore, he wants him to leave a copy of his beauty in the form of a child.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Sonnet 11: As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow’st

literary devices are the writer’s instruments; they use them to make their texts worth reading. Their appropriate use helps readers to hit the main idea of the poem. Shakespeare has also used various literary devices in this poem, whose analysis is as follows.

  1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /e/ in “In one of thine, from that which thou departest” and the sound of /o/ in “Without this folly, age, and cold decay.”
  2. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /r/ in “Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish:” and the sound of /t/ in “She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby.”
  3. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Shakespeare used imagery in this poem such as “Let those whom nature hath not made for store” and “Look whom she best endowed, she gave the more;”
  4. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between objects that are different in nature. The poet has used the extended metaphors of love and old age to show impending death.
  5. Personification: Personification is to give human qualities to non-human things. Shakespeare has used this device in final couplet of the poem, where he personifies nature such as;

“She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby,
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.”

  1. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from literal meanings. “The poet has used symbols like death, aging, love, and nature.

Analysis of Poetic Devices in “Sonnet 11: As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow’st”

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem

  1. Couplet: Two verses having the same rhyme scheme and the same metrical pattern is a couplet. This sonnet ends with a couplet, which usually reveals the central idea of the poem. For example,

“She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby,
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.”

  1. End Rhyme: It means the rhyming of the ending words. Shakespeare has used end rhyme in this poem such as “store/more”, “thereby/die” and “decay/away.”
  2. Iambic Pentameter: It is a type of meter having five iambs per line. The poem follows iambic pentameter such as “As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow’st.”
  3. Quatrain: A quatrain is a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. The poem has three quatrains such as though typically a sonnet has a sestet and an octave but sometimes sestet have quatrains.
  4. Rhyme Scheme: The sonnet follows typical Shakespearean rhyme scheme that is ABABABCDCD in its octave and EFEFGG in its sestet.
  5. Sonnet: A sonnet is a fourteen-lined poem usually written in iambic pentameter. This Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains and a couplet.

Quotes to be Used

The lines stated below are useful to refer to when talking about the blessings of the natural world.

“Look whom she best endowed, she gave the more;
Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish:
She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby,
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.”