First Quatrain: “Not marble, nor the gilded monuments”
The speaker of Shakespeare sonnet 55 begins by proclaiming that his poem is more powerful than “marble” or “gilded monuments.” Princes have nothing on poets when it come to enshrining truth: “Not marble, nor the gilded monuments / Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme.” The poet/speaker has faith that his sonnets will outlast any stone statue that is “besmear’d with sluttish time.”
Marble and stone monuments become mere obscene gestures when compared to the written monuments that contain a true poet’s tributes to truth and beauty. The poet knows that truth is soul inspired, and therefore it is eternal.
Second Quatrain: “When wasteful war shall statues overturn”
In the second quatrain, the speaker insists that nothing can erase “The living record of your memory.” The poem’s memory is permanent; even though “wasteful war” may “overturn” “statues” and “broils root out the work of masonry.” The poem is ethereal and once written remains a permanent record written on memory.
“The living record” includes more than just parchment and ink; it includes the power of thought that is born in each mind. The true seer/poet creates that living record in his poems to remind others that truth is indelible, beautiful, and eternal and cannot be waylaid even “[w]hen wasteful war shall statues overturn, / And broils root out the work of masonry.”
Third Quatrain: “'Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity”
The poem containing truth and beauty is immortal; it is “'Gainst death.” No enemy can ever succeed against that soul-truth; as the speaker avers, “your praise shall still find room / Even in the eyes of all posterity / That wear this world out to the ending doom.”
This poet/speaker, as the reader has experienced many times before in his sonnets, has the utmost confidence that his poems will be enjoying widespread fame and that all future generations of readers, “eyes of all posterity,” will be reading and studying them. The speaker’s faith in his own talent is deep and abiding, and he is certain they will continue to remain “[e]ven in the eyes of all posterity / That wear this world out to the ending doom.”
The Couplet: “So, till the judgment that yourself arise”
In the couplet, “So, till the judgment that yourself arise, / You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes,” the speaker caps his claims by asserting that in the accounting of the poem, the poetic truth and beauty will exist forever and remain imbedded in the vision of future readers.
Other Shakespeare articles: Who is Shakespeare?
Sonnet Commentaries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 73, 96, 116, 126, 130, 138
 |
