Poetry explication

In Sonnet 55, William Shakespeare addresses the poem to a friend. The speaker boasts of
the “powerful rhyme,” specifically its immortality. The poem will outlive gilded monuments and
marble, hence keeping his friend’s memory alive until the last judgment. The pome makes a
confident and somewhat defiant statement that creates a clear contrast between life and death.
The poem depicts the poet’s power over death by using immortal rhymes to preserve the young
friend’s memories. Even when death destroys everything, the poem will still retain its charm and
beauty as the words will live forever. Sonnet 55: “Not marble nor the gilded monuments” by
William Shakespeare dramatizes the conflict between life and death.
In lines 1-4, the sonnet clearly states the argument developed in the other lines. In the
first line, the speaker is deliberately ornate and proceeds to mock anyone, including princes and
others in a position of power who think they are immortal. The theme of death and life is evident
from the first lines. The speaker argues that death is inevitable for other products of creation
apart from the rhymes. Even statues will crumble, and kingdoms will fall, but the poem will live
and preserve the lover’s memory. The speaker’s love for the young friend will also stay alive. The
poet immortalizes the friend and holds that the rhyme will” shine brightly” and overpower even
death.
Further, in lines 5-10, the poet further elaborates that the friend’s memory will live
forever. Unlike works of skilled masons that can be destroyed, poetry can be reproduced both
through writing and orally hence making the memories live on through generations. In these
lines, the tenacity of the speaker’s words is shown. Not even wars, which destroy buildings, will
succeed in destroying the rhymes. The lines memorize and immortalize the poet’s friend. It is

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evident that the poet’s friend will live for as long as the words themselves will exist. In these
lines, the poet acknowledges the power of death. Every other creature might die and will
eventually die. However, the poem shall live, and so will the friend.
Further, in the last four lines, the immortality of the friend is in the lines of the poem as
well as in the eyes of anyone who will read it. Thus, in extension, the readers of the poem will
share their lives with the immortalized friend. The poem will live to the judgment day. The
memories of the lover will be resurrected as other people get resurrected. In this line, the poet
acknowledges that the people will die and then get to live again later. The friend, who is dead,
and whose memories are preserved in the poem, will also get to live again at the end of time. But
before then, the friend’s memories will continue to live in the words of the poem.
Overall, Shakespeare depicts the immortality of poetry as it shares the life of its readers.
The poem gets its enduring power through the continuous existence of its readers. However, the
readers will die, and other creatures will get destroyed. The continuity of life itself perpetuates
the life within the rhymes. The poem is reproduced ad lives through generations as it is shared by
different people. Thus, it is evident that the poet derives their confidence about the immortality
of the poem from their knowledge about the continuity of life.