SONNET 19
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-lived phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,
And do whate'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.
Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
POEM INTERPRETATION - Younga Meniboon
What this poem is saying is that the speaker does not want her (his?) love to ever grow old. The speaker is saying that their love should never be touched by the pen of aging but should stay beautiful forever. (It also says the loved one will live forever in this poem, though.) So the line I cite, which is the first line, is saying something like "go ahead, time which devours everything. Go ahead and make the lion's paws blunt." It goes on to say what else time can do. But then it says "okay, time, do all that stuff, but leave my love alone."
POEM INTERPRETATION - Doug Novak
In this sonnet William wants to preserve the beauty of his lover. His fear of aging and its effect on the body are evident,”O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow.” This fear is portrayed in many of his early sonnets. In he seems to believe that he can fight time and win.
He shows how time does not care in the first line of the second quatrain, it (time) “makes glad and sorry as it fleet’st”. The implication being that people, being compared metaphorically to the seasons, are happy as the different stages of life begins and sad as they come to an end. His expression of times lack of concern towards this sadness shows Williams contempt for time at this stage in writings and his life. By giving time life and identity he is able to attack it with the possibility of being victorious. He begins to paint time, and the earth, as a force of evil that must be defeated in line two when he personifies the earth as “devouring her own sweet brood,” referring to burials after death. He indicates that time is the enemy that causes death and that the earth will eat all life. By forbidding time to take his lover’s beauty at the end of the second quatrain William shows that he believes that he has power over time.
In the end he challenges time to do what it will, “do thy worst.” He essentially wins his battle with time in his works; as they continue to live. Through his work we are able to see the beauty that time has attempted to decay. Although their form has been swallowed by the earth, the spirit and beauty of William and each of his characters live on.
POEM INTERPRETATION - Jackson Lee
The speaker in the poem is saying that time will make anything old. From his words he uses much imagery and personification to give the reader much details about how time destroys all things. In the last few lines he states that although time does destroy much, in the poem his lover will stay young forever. Its ironic and true because from the poetry we get the feel that there is a young beautiful person, yet in reality its been hundreds of years.