Sonnet 55

Sonnet 55 revolves around the images of human-built monuments and statues. Like many of the previous sonnets, Shakespeare again preaches immortality to the young man, but this time, he does so with much more self-pride. He seems to have a much higher amount of self-confidence in this sonnet as he claims that “you live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.” Shakespeare claims that his poem will live on forever, unlike the marble statues of princes that will someday be destroyed by wars and monuments that will continue to fall apart. While there was much self-confidence in this poem, it again shows Shakespeare’s love for the young man because instead of stating that Shakespeare himself will live on forever in his poem, he says that the young man will. I also found Shakespeare’s use of the word time in this sonnet very interesting. In previous sonnets, he shows respect for the word by personifying it or using powerful words to describe it. In this sonnet however, he describes time as being “sluttish” or dirty which I thought was quite odd.