Essay on the Gift of Life in Shakespeares Sonnet 16 -- Sonnet essays

The Precious Gift of Life Revealed in Sonnet 16    Throughout literature authors attempt to control the passage of clock time through their works.  In William Shakespeares Sonnet 16 he addresses this subject through the use of literary devices.  These devices indicate how the progress of seasons cannot be controlled by words alone.  The tone ending of time is displayed through paradox and imagery, but it is overcome by the ceaseless life of progeny, unlike the feeble words of Shakespeares sonnet.   Change and age help decide time.  Shakespeare uses paradox to help convey change and relate it to the past.  He says to fortify yourself in your decay, (3) which tells the reader that a stronger being and a stronger state of remembrance should be attained before death.  Though Shakespeare attempts to endure time with verse, his sonnet alone is not worthy enough to withstand the future.  A paradox in the dyad shows how to achieve this state of e ternal life by giving away yourself keeps yourself still (13).  To achieve ...