A PROJECT

ON

Sonet - 5

SUBJECT: English - I

(Submitted as a partial fulfilment of the requirements for B.A. LL. B (Hons.) 5 Year
Course)

SESSION 2022-23
SUBMTTED ON: 25TH January, 2023

SUBMITTED BY: S UBMITTED TO:

Keshav Narayan Harsh Dr. Priyanka Khetan
Roll No. 066 (Faculty, English - I)
Semester I A

UNIVERSITY FIVE YEAR L AW COLLEGE

UNIVERSITY OF RAJASTHAN

JAIPUR

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 DECLARATION

I, Keshav Narayan Harsh, hereby declare that project titled “Sonet - 5” is based on the
original research carried out by me under the guidance and supervision of Dr. Priyanka
Khetan, Faculty of Economics - I at University Five Year Law College. The interpretations
and inferences put forth are based on my reading, understanding and comprehension of the
original text. The book, article, website and any other literary resources used or are relied
upon by me have been duly acknowledged by me at the respective places with the text.

For the present project which I am submitting to the University, no degree or diploma has
been conferred on me before, either in this or in any University.

DATE: 25TH JANUARY, 2023

SIGNATURE
(KESHAV NARAYAN
HARSH)

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 CERTIFICATE

Dr. Priyanka Khetan DATE: 24TH JANUARY, 2023

Faculty

University Five Year Law

CollegeUniversity of

Rajasthan, Jaipur

This is to certify that Mr. Keshav Narayan Harsh student of I Semester, Section A of
University Five Year Law College, University of Rajasthan has carried out the project titled
“Sonet - 5” under my supervision and guidance. It is an investigation report of minor
project. The student has completed research work in stipulated time and according to
norms prescribed for the purpose.

SIGNATURE
(DR. PRIYAN K A KHET AN )

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have written this project, “Sonet - 5” under the supervision of Dr. Priyanka Khetan,
Faculty, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Her valuable suggestions herein have not only
helped me immensely in making this project but also in developing an analytical approach
towards this project.

I would also like to present my gratitude to Hon’ble Director Dr. Akhil Kumar Chauhan
for her consistent support during the preparation of this project.

I am extremely grateful to all the librarians and library staff of the college for the support
and cooperation extended by them from time to time.

SIGNATURE
(KESHAV NARAYAN HARSH)

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 INDEX

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
 CERTIFICATE
 ABOUT WILLIAM SHAKESHPEARE
 INTRODUCTION
 SONNET-5
 FIRST STANZA
 SECOND STANZA
 THIRD STANZA
 FOUTH STANZA
 CRITICAL APPRECIATION
 CONCLUSION

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 ABOUT WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare, also known as Bard of Avon or Swan of Avon, was baptized in 1564
and died in 1616. Although his date of birth is not certain, he was born in Stratford-upon-
Avon, Warwickshire, England.

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor and it is considered by many
as one of the greatest dramatists of all times. He was often referred to as the English National
Poet.

Shakespeare was married to Anne Hathaway and they had three children (Susanna Hall,
Hamnet Shakespeare, and Judith Quiney). Over the years, his plays have been staged all over
the world and translated into every major language. Up to this day, Shakespeare’s works are
still incredibly popular and are constantly studied, read, and interpreted in diverse cultural
and political contexts.

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 INTRODUCTION

Sonnet 5 belongs to the traditionally called “Procreation Sonnets”, sonnets 1 to 17, which
urge a young man to marry and have children in order to immortalize his beauty. Moreover,
Sonnet 5 is also part of the “Fair Youth” sequence, sonnets 1 to 126, which refer to the young
man to whom the poems are addressed to. These poems have a romantic tone and utilize
powerful imagery.

In this first of two linked sonnets, the poet compares the young man to summer and its
flowers, doomed to be destroyed by winter. Even though summer inevitably dies, he argues,
its flowers can be distilled into perfume. The beauty of the flowers and thereby the essence of
summer are thus preserved.

As the rest of the poems in The Sonnets, Sonnet 5 can be characterized as a Shakespearean
sonnet. A Shakespearean sonnet differs from a traditional sonnet, as it has three quatrains and
a final couplet. It follows an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme and has an iambic
pentameter.

Sonnet 5 depicts the passing of time and relates nature’s four seasons with the stages of life.
This particular sonnet refers to aging in general and does not mention the young man
particularly. However, Sonnet 6, which functions as a continuation of Sonnet 5, talks directly
to this man. Thus, both poems form a series within the “Procreation Sonnets”, as they are
closely related and construct a bigger thematic unit.

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 SONNET-5

Those hours, that with gentle work did frame

The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,

Will play the tyrants to the very same

And that unfair which fairly doth excel;

For never-resting time leads summer on

To hideous winter, and confounds him there;

Sap checked with frost, and lusty leaves quite gone,

Beauty o'er-snowed and bareness every where:

Then were not summer's distillation left,

A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,

Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft,

Nor it, nor no remembrance what it was:

But flowers distilled, though they with winter meet,

Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.

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 FIRST STANZA

Those hours that with gentle work did frame

The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell

Will play the tyrants to the very same

And that unfair which fairly doth excel.

The first quatrain explains the results of the passing of time. The lyrical voice explains how
time, even though it made the young man beautiful at an early age, will eventually make him
older and take away his beauty. Beauty is associated with youth (“Those hour that with gentle
work did frame/ The lovely gaze where every eye doth well”) and aging, on the other hand,
destroys these good looks (“Will play the tyrants to the very same/and that unfair which fairly
doth excel”).

Time is personified in the first line and throughout the quatrain (“Those hours”), as it
emphasizes the powerful force of aging. There is an Epanalepsis in the second line,
accentuating the meaning of “gaze” and “eye” (“The lovely gaze where every eye doth
dwell”). Moreover, there is an alliteration in the third line, repeating the same consonant
sound to add dimension (“Will play the tyrants to the very same”).

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 SECOND STANZA

For never-resting time leads summer on

To hideous winter and confounds him there,

Sap checked with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,

Beauty o’er-snowed and bareness everywhere.

The second quatrain furthers the negative consequences of aging. Youth is linked to
summertime, whereas old age relates to winter. The process of aging destroys beauty
(“Beauty o’er-snowed and bareness everywhere”), and takes the summer out of life by
turning it into winter (“For never-resting time leads summer on/To hideous winter and
confound him there”).

Again, there is a personification of time, as it accentuates the effects that time will have on
the young man’s life and the force it possesses because of its constant enforcement (“For
never-resting time”, “To hideous winter”). There is alliteration on the third line (“Sap
checked with frost and lusty leaves quite gone”).

The tone of the poem gets more dramatic as the lyrical voice describes in more detail the
consequences of the passing of time. Furthermore, there is a pessimistic tone, as the lyrical
voice concludes the quatrain by saying that beauty will eventually disappear (“Beauty o’ver-
snowed and bareness everywhere”).

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 THIRD STANZA

Then were not summer’s distillation left,

A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,

Beauty’s effect with beauty were bereft,

Nor it nor no remembrance what it was.

The third quatrain depicts the necessity of preserving beauty. Both summer and beauty,
associated with youth, are ephemeral. The lyrical voice expresses that there is a possibility of
forgetting about beauty if it is carried away by the force of aging.

There is an epanalepsis on the third line, accentuating the importance of beauty (“Beauty’s
effects with beauty were bereft”) and there is alliteration in the last line (“Nor it nor no
remembrance what it was”).

The tone of the poem continues to be dramatic and pessimistic, as the lyrical voice describes
the possibility of beauty disappearing with old age.

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 FOURTH STANZA

But flowers distilled, though they with winter meet

Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.

The final couplet explains how beauty can be protected. “flowers distilled” refer to the
extraction of perfume, where the visible and the physical are extracted and the essence of the
flower remains. This is an extended metaphor to continue talking about preserving beauty.

For the lyrical voice, the only way to conserve beauty is to prolong its essence by having
children. And, despite aging, the lyrical voice could keep his beauty if he decides to
procreate.

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 CRITICAL APPRECIATION

Shakespeare’s use of metaphor in Sonnet 5 is incremental. Each new metaphor builds on a

pre-existing metaphor or conceit. The second quatrain’s metaphor of seasonal change
naturally follows the first quatrain’s conceit of “those hours” that “will play tyrants.” Both
metaphors dramatize time’s passage by focusing on specific units of time—first hours, then
seasons. The third quatrain’s metaphor naturally follows that of the second quatrain. Whereas
the second quatrain dramatizes the decay of sap and “lusty leaves,” the third quatrain
introduces the promise of distilled flowers. Both metaphors rely on a botanical framework,
using simple images from the natural world to convey the speaker’s view as it moves from
despair to hope. The final couplet specifies flowers as the object of the distillation process
introduced in the third quatrain. Flowers, with their dual properties of “show” and
“substance,” solve the speaker’s problem while remaining within the poem’s metaphorical
arena.

Sonnet 5 can be read as an ars poetica, a poem about poetry. Perhaps the most striking line in
the poem is ten: “A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass.” This rich image can be construed
into two related but distinct metaphors:

 The prisoner is the beloved youth; the walls of the glass are the structures of Sonnet 5,
in which the youth is “pent.” The youth’s liquidity stands for his immortality; he
maintains the fluid quality of living things, as opposed to the frozen sap, falling
leaves, and bare snow of the second quatrain. The metaphor extends to the glass walls
of the sonnet, which allow future generations of readers—ourselves included—to
inspect and appreciate the youth’s essence.
 The other metaphor that can be drawn from this image is a purely poetic one. The
glass walls are the constraints of the sonnet form, with its necessary meter, rhyme
scheme, and verse structure. Within these strict rigidities of poetic tradition,
Shakespeare pours the “liquid prisoner” of the heart’s pains, fears, and desires. This
precise tension between warm feeling and cold form animates many, if not all, of
Shakespeare’s sonnets.

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 CONCLUSION

It repeats the emphasis on human aging, compared with progress of the seasons. The
“howers,” with which Sonnet 5, the first of a pair of sonnets, opens are the classical ‘Hours,’
the Horae or ‘Ωραι, daughters of Zeus and Themis, who presided over the seasons – hora can
also mean ‘season’ – and their products were thought to engender ripeness in nature and the
prime of human life. But the hours, which created his look, will in time act as destructive
tyrants and make “vnfaire” that which in its fairness excels.[2]

The final couplet about "distilled flowers" refers to the extraction of perfume from petals, in
which the visible "show" of the flowers disappears, but their "essence" remains. The same
distillatory trope recurs in Sonnet 54, Sonnet 74 and Sonnet 119.[2] The reference is probably
to the Youth's "seed" - his capacity to prolong his "essence" by producing children, but it is
also an example of Shakespeare's play on the question of what is transient and what eternal in
the material world.

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