Nicole Moore Sanborn

Renaissance writers often employ the same theme, simultaneously demonstrating their own unique style and flair. Popular Renaissance themes include love, beauty, and immortality of verse. Although Spenser and Shakespeare write about the same theme of immortality of verse, Shakespeare utilizes animal imagery and a more aggressive tone in his “Sonnet 19”, whereas Spenser utilizes dialogue and a happier tone in his “Sonnet 75”. The varying aforementioned aspects, specific words, and imagery of each sonnet join together to create coherent ideas and reveal the overall themes.

In the first line of each sonnet, the speaker reveals the tone. Although the same theme is employed, the tones are disparate from one another, as Shakespeare is aggressive while Spenser is happy. Shakespeare begins with “Devouring Time,” (19.1) whereas Spenser begins with “One day” (75.1). Devouring is a very strong term. In this case, devouring has a negative connotation, as it is followed by time, as time causes destruction. This means Time is personified here, indicated immediately by the fact that it is capitalized and it is devouring, an aggressive action. The capitalization suggests Time is a name, and nonliving things cannot act or devour. Spenser’s “One day” (75.1) implies a story, as many romances and fairy tales begin with those two words. Spenser’s sonnet reveals a more positive tone in the first two words, as fairy tales are considered to have happy endings and Spenser’s sonnet begins in the same manner as a fairy tale. These tones hold true for the remainder of each sonnet.

Although the first two words of each sonnet successfully and intentionally reveal the respective tones of the poems, these words accomplish different things in revealing the theme. The first two words of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 19” reveal the theme of the sonnet, while the first two words of Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” do not. Shakespeare’s “Devouring Time” (19.1) relates strongly to revealing the theme of immortality of verse. Immortality is the ultimate defeater of time, because immortality lasts forever. Therefore, immortality deceases when time deceases, because the ending of time marks the ending of forever. Although Shakespeare does not fully engage in the theme of immortality of verse in line one, he begins to imply it, whereas the first two words of Spenser’s sonnet imply a story is about to be told and therefore do not relate as strongly to the overall theme. “One day” (75.1) does indeed relate to time, but relates to mortality rather than immortality, as the words refer to one day in mortal human history. Rather, the first two words are a set up for the rest of the sonnet, where the theme is revealed later. Spenser’s first two words set the foundation for the dialogue in the rest of his poem.

Shakespeare uses animal imagery with three specific examples: a lion, a tiger, and the phoenix. These examples lead up to the turn of the sonnet and to the speaker’s confrontation of time (19.8).  As each animal used is a fierce and majestic creature, the specific examples are important to the overall meaning and in providing more evidence for the sonnet’s aggressive tone. The speaker tells time to “blunt the lion’s paws” (19.1) and “pluck” teeth from the “fierce” tiger (19.3). Lions and tigers are both powerful animals, and any human attempting to blunt a lion’s paws or pluck the tiger’s teeth will be mauled in the process, thereby separating time as a transcendent power. Time devours these fierce animals that humans can hardly tame. Shakespeare tells time to “burn the long-lived phoenix” (19.4), which is a reference to the legend that every 500 years the phoenix burst into flames and death, where from the ashes a new baby phoenix would emerge. An aggressive tone and the personification of time are also demonstrated here; as Time burns, which is a verb. The specific examples used mean and demonstrate that time is intently and aggressively devouring and destroying fierce animals on the earth. Personification of Time is also demonstrated here because the imagery declares the physical action of time, as demonstrated through the speaker’s use of aggressive words. Specific examples used here, therefore, are carefully and artfully chosen to relate to the aggressive tone and ideal of the sonnet.

The speaker in Shakespeare’s poem tells time to do whatever it would like “to the wide world and all her fading sweets” (19.7), which sets him up for the turn in his sonnet and the change in argument. At the turn, the speaker expresses the thought that time can do whatever, except for one thing. Forbidding Time to commit one “heinous” crime (19.8), the turn of the sonnet occurs and the theme is revealed. The specific examples and animal imagery used demonstrate clearly the actions of Time, however Time is not tied into writing and verse specifically until later in the poem. The speaker commands Time not to touch his love. “O carve not with thy hours” (19.9) commands time not to touch his lover like it ages the phoenix, preparing the reader for the final line, which explicitly states the theme of immortality of verse. The final line states directly that love shall “ever live young” (19.14) in his verse, implying immortality. He implies immortality through use of “ever” (19.14) meaning forever. These words also specifically defy time, as she shall forever be young in his verse, thereby bringing all of the examples of what time will devour and conquer into fruition through this counterexample. The counterexample also becomes the main theme of the sonnet and brings the reader resolution.

Spenser tells a story in his sonnet rather than directly confronting and personifying time before he reveals his theme. In the first quatrain of Spenser’s “Sonnet 75”, the speaker writes his lover’s name on the sand at the beach twice, but the tide washes it away both times. In story format, these occurrences set up the author’s theme of immortality of verse, revealed more clearly in the first quatrain than in Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 19”. Though Shakespeare’s sonnet is clearly about time, time has not yet been related to writing or verse. However, Spenser automatically reveals the theme of immortality of writing and verse because he writes his lover’s name on the sand. Writing on sand is far from immortal as sand shifts and waves crash over the beach, erasing what was once there. Beaches change by the minute and hour, and the beach will hardly look the same after one day. Later in the sonnet, the lover calls the speaker a “vayne man” (75.5) and proceeds to note that just like her name on the sand, “I my selve shall lyke to this decay” (75.7), meaning she will also decay and will not last forever. Here, the speaker immortalizes mortal things purposefully, to prepare the reader for the idea of verse being immortal. That being said, the second quatrain sets up immortality of verse in a different way, by noting the mortality of earthly things such as sand and humanity.

Another interesting aspect of Spenser using the image of writing a name on sand is that it involves sea imagery. In other sonnets by Shakespeare and other authors, sea imagery is used; however it is used more steadfastly as the authors and speakers in the poems allude to steadfastness of a lighthouse or of a strong ship as opposed to gentle sand and writing being washed away. Spenser’s different use of sea imagery sets his theme up well, as it demonstrates that not everything involving the sea and the ocean is steadfast. He essentially uses sand as a counterpoint to the reveal his point that although sand does not last forever, his poetry will.

In the second half of the third quatrain in Spenser’s sonnet, the speaker more directly reveals the theme of the sonnet: immortality of verse. The speaker says, “My verse your vertues rare shall eternalize” (75.11), stating he will write about her not only in the sand but also in his verse. In the couplet ending the sonnet, the speaker mentions that death will swallow up the world, but their love shall live through his verse. The speaker is extremely direct here and states the theme directly, there is no speculation as to what he is saying. The theme is resolved here, as the speaker writes in a non-permanent way, is reminded of mortality, and then directly states that his verse shall live and their love shall live in it, or, his verse shall be eternal after the world is subdued. The idea is that the sonnet will be passed down among generations, thereby immortalizing it.

The turn of Spenser’s sonnet occurs at the beginning of the third quatrain. The turn also takes place when the speaker of the poem engages in dialogue in response to the mistress. The turn begins to direct the reader to the sonnet’s theme, as highlighted earlier. The speaker presents the turn of the poem, as he begins with “Not so” (75.9), indicating a contradiction of belief. The speaker contradicts the mistress’s speech of decay to reveal the theme when he declares she “shall live by fame” (75.10) within his verse in an immortal manner. Though the final line of the sonnet gives resolution to the theme of the poem, the theme begins to flesh out in the third quatrain right after the turn, in the quoted line above. Next, the idea of her living in his verse is directly stated “My verse your vertues rare shall eternize” (75.11), contradicting the earlier decay she mentions in line seven. Spenser’s “examples” and means to reveal the tone and theme of his sonnet is dialogue as opposed to specific animal examples, making it such that Spenser employs his theme in a different manner than Shakespeare.

Shakespeare begins his turn with “But” (19.8). In this line, the speaker directly challenges time and begins his command, indicated by the colon at the end of the line. The use of the colon is very important to the sonnet, as it indicates to the reader that the command to time will be explicitly stated in the next few lines. Beginning in line nine, Shakespeare reveals the theme of immorality of verse more clearly, yet without dialogue. In the rest of the sonnet, Shakespeare acknowledges the ability of time to devour even the fiercest of creatures as well as tarnish the whole “wide world” (19.7), thereby personifying time. The theme is not explicitly stated until line fourteen of the sonnet, where Shakespeare writes, “My love shall in my verse ever live young.” (19.14). Commanding time to leave his lover alone, the speaker hints that he will write about her through using the words “antique pen” (19.10), making a direct reference to writing. Shakespeare’s sonnet differs from Spenser’s sonnet, therefore, in that Shakespeare does not use dialogue but specific examples and in that Shakespeare waits until the very end of the poem to definitely resolve the poem and explicitly state theme of immortality of verse. Both sonnets provide resolution at the end.

Spenser and Shakespeare present two extremely interesting examples of utilizing different means to go about revealing the same theme. Shakespeare uses aggression and fiercely aggressive animals, while Spenser uses dialogue and a happier tone. Both “Sonnet 19” and “Sonnet 75” provide resolution at the end, and both authors use the turn of their sonnet to transition from specific examples or dialogue to a more direct statement of the theme. Fortunately for the reader, both authors resolve the theme of their sonnets. Both brilliant authors, Spenser and Shakespeare are extremely successful at employing the same theme through completely different attitudes, examples, and lenses, and are therefore two brilliant authors among Renaissance writers.