Sonnet 22: My Glass Shall Not Persuade Me I Am Old
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date;
But when in thee time’s furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
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?
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 babe from faring ill.
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain,
Thou gav’st me thine not to give back again.
Meanings of Sonnet 22: My Glass Shall Not Persuade Me I Am Old
Sonnet 22 by William Shakespeare presents a speaker and his intense love for a fair youth. The main idea of the sonnet is the intensity of love and its expression.
Meanings of Lines 1-4
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date;
But when in thee time’s furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
The speaker states that his mirror is not going to convince him that he is old. It is because the youth and the speaker have the same date. Therefore, when the speaker sees that the youth has furrows or wrinkles on his face, he would come to know that his days have compensated for his death or that his death is nearing. The speaker means that if the fair youth is getting old, it means he is also getting old. These verses add to the main idea of love and death.
Meanings of Lines 5-8
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 gets emotional. He says that the beauty of the youth is the cover of his heart. The hearts of both beat for each other. He questions whether what beats in his breast is his ‘s friends heart and vice versa. Then how can he get older than the youth, the speaker says, to mean that he cannot get old faster than the youth. These verses further add to the main idea of love and death.
Meanings of Lines 9-12
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 babe from faring ill.
Using an apostrophe and addressing the youth, the speaker says that the youth should take care of himself and that both should do the same so that both can stay safe and sound. It is because the youth has the heart of the speaker in his breast and vice versa. Therefore, they should take care of the heart of each other like a “tender nurse.” The speaker appeals to the youth that both should take care of themselves to save themselves. These verses further add to the intense love and their mutual interdependence.
Meanings of Lines 13-14
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain,
Thou gav’st me thine not to give back again.
The speaker assures the youth that he has given him his heart. In this relationship, there is no getting it back. Therefore, he should not suppose that he is going to get his heart back from his youth. The speaker means that if his heart dies, it means that he would also die as he has given his heart to the speaker not to get it back. This couplet completes the main idea of love, death, and the interdependence of lovers.
Summary of Sonnet 22: My Glass Shall Not Persuade Me I Am Old
- Popularity of “Sonnet 22”: Written by William Shakespeare, a canonical English writer, poet, and actor, “Sonnet 22” is a love poem. It shows the speaker’s intense love for the fair youth. It highlights how love unites people and makes them live a life full of wonders. It has, however, gained popularity due to its praiseworthy representation of love.
- “Sonnet 22” As a Representative of Love: This sonnet revolves around the idea of love. It begins when the speaker declines the reality that he is getting old. He believes age is just a number; he can’t get old as long as his friend appears eternally young to him. He seems to deny that life is dragging him toward death. However, when he begins to observe wrinkles on his friend’s face, he anticipates the arrival of unavoidable death. He believes that his friend’s beauty is only the fine clothing of his heart that beats in his chest. Furthermore, he believes that love enables him to achieve a miraculous level of eternity, where he assumes that he possesses his friend’s heart beating in his chest. He claims he protects his friend’s heart just like a mother protects her baby. The ending of the poem is somehow ironic. The poem ends when the speaker claims his friend should not think about taking his heart back from the speaker. He adds that if something happens to the speaker, it will affect his friend’s life equally.
- Major Themes in “Sonnet 22”: Love, death, affection, and aging are the major themes of the poem. The sonnet suggests when a person falls in love, he sees everything from his lover’s eyes. The speaker claims that as long he holds the youth’s affection, he can defy time and his mortality. The speaker measures his physical decline by how the youth ages. Therefore, as long as his friend remains young, he will also look young. To make his ideas more persuasive, the poem expresses the youth exchanging hearts in highly intimate words. The speaker assures his friend that he will care for the youth’s heart well. Although it sounds pleasing that he is possessive of the young man, yet he dismisses the age difference between the two. It seems he does not care about the world and loves to be overly possessive of the youth, as he says he won’t give back his heart.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Sonnet 22: My Glass Shall Not Persuade Me I Am Old
literary devices are the modes that represent the writer’s ideas, feelings, and emotions. It is through these devices the writers make their seemingly simple texts worth reading. Shakespeare has also added some literary devices in the poem, whose analysis is as follows.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /e/ in “Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;” and the sound of /o/ in “O! therefore love, be of thyself so wary.”
- Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick succession, such as the sound of /f/ in “babe from faring ill,” and the sound of /t/ in “Presume not on thy heart.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /n/ in “Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain” and the sound of /t/ in “How can I then be elder than thou art.”
- Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example;
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 babe from faring ill.
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Shakespeare used imagery in this poem, such as; “Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary”, “As tender nurse her babe from faring ill” and “Thou gav’st me thine not to give back again.”
- 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 love as an extended metaphor to show how it makes a person crazy.
- Rhetorical Question: Rhetorical question is a question that is not asked to receive an answer; it is just posed to make the point clear. Shakespeare posed a rhetorical question in the middle of the poem, such as “How can I then be elder than thou art?”
- Symbolism: Symbolism uses symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal ones. The poem uses symbols such as love, praise, beauty, and death.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Sonnet 22: My Glass Shall Not Persuade Me I Am Old
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Couplet: There are two constructive lines of verse in a couplet, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme. This sonnet ends with a couplet, which usually reveals the central idea of the poem.
- End Rhyme: End Rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. Shakespeare has used end rhyme in this poem such as; “slain/again” “thee/me” and “will/ill.”
- Iambic Pentameter: It is a type of meter having five iambs per line. The poem follows iambic pentameter, such as “Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain.”
- Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows ABAB CDCD in its octave and EFEF GG rhyme scheme in the sestet.
- Sonnet: A sonnet is a fourteen-lined poem usually written in iambic pentameter. This Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains and a couplet.
Quote to be Used
The following lines are useful for lovers to express candid and lovely feelings for their love.
“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”
