took a break from link click. came back and now foaming at the MOUTH over the inclusion of sonnet 19. link click production team don’t THINK i don’t see you. like. the sonnet about shielding your gay lover from passing time?? AUGH. for those who aren’t insane like me, an english sonnet (also called shakespearean but i like this less b/c it sounds like it refers only to sonnets written BY shakespeare) is one fourteen-line stanza that is broken up by its rhyme scheme into three quatrains (sets of four lines) and one couplet (set of two lines). typically, the quatrains build on each other to create one main idea, which the final couplet puts a twist on. it’s a very fun structure. notably, it is also written in iambic pentameter, which has the benefit of fitting very well with english speech as well as often being compared to the rhythm of a bearing heart. this is not relevant to my analysis, i just like it. now let’s look at sonnet 19 specifically, breaking it up into the two main parts:
“Devouring time, blunt thou the lion's paws
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood,
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws
And burn the long-liv'd phoenix in her blood,
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
And do what e'er thou wilt, swift-footed time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets:
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime,
O carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen,
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.”
this first section takes on a pleading, bargaining tone speaking with Time (in a technique known as apostrophe), begging to take/weaken anything but the speaker’s (notably male, i see you William Gaysqueer) love. for the speaker, this is in regards to aging and the supposed loss of beauty that his love will experience because of it, but it’s easy to interpret Time’s “one most heinous crime” as Cheng Xiaoshi’s death. the notes of being uncaring about whatever else time degrades so long as the speaker’s love is kept exactly as he is? you see what i’m saying?
“Yet do thy worst, old time, despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.”
I think there are two important things to note when it comes to how the final couplet changes the meaning of the sonnet and what this means for Lu Guang.
1) the tone shifts from begging to defiant. the speaker is no longer asking Time to “allow” anything, but rather challenging it to do its worst. Similarly, with Cheng Xiaoshi’s death, Lu Guang no longer accepts the established timeline but fights against it.
2) while the speaker finds a way for his love to “ever live young” through his art, this (obviously) does not actually stop him from aging, but rather traps a version of him in a piece of art. like a photograph. just as, outside of verse, the speaker’s love will continue to age, outside of the moments Lu Guang dives into, Cheng Xiaoshi will die. while each can hang on to a version of their love untouched by time, it is ultimately futile.
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