"The conceit of this inconstant stay": Shakespeare's Philosophical Conquest of Time Through Personification

<p>Throughout the procreation sonnets and those numerous sonnets that promise immortality through verse for Shakespeare's beloved young man, the poet personifies time as an agent of relentlessly destructive change. Yet Shakespeare's approach to the personification of time, as well as his reactions to time, changes over the course of the sequence. He transforms his fear of and obsession with time as a destroyer typical of most sonnets to an attitude of mastery over the once ominous force. The act of contemplating time's power by personification provides the speaker with a deeper awareness of time, love, and mutability that allows him to form several new philosophies which resolve his fear. By the end of the sequence, the poet no longer fortifies himself and the beloved against time's devastation because his new outlook fosters an acceptance of time that opposes and thus negates his previous contention with this force.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year

2010

Author dc:creator

• Roberson, Triche

Contributors dc:contributor

• Gery, John
• Mooney, Michael
• Loomis, Catherine

• Shakespeare
• sonnets
• time
• personification of time
• personification in the sonnets
• love
• philosophy of time
• agricultural imagery in the sonnets
• sonnet narrativity
• Sonnet 15
• Sonnet 64
• Sonnet 123
• Sonnet 125

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1203

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-2186