Examine how poets in the anthology viewed the concept of time and how they presented these views in their poetry.

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Examine how poets in the anthology viewed the concept of time and how they presented these views in their poetry.

Over the centuries, time, and the concept of it has been a popular topic for poetry. As its use grew, the many different perspectives from which the concept of time can be viewed, became apparent. The perception of time in each poem is dependant on the political and scientific world at the time, as well as events in the life of the poet himself. As the poetry in the anthology spans several different eras, we can see the effect of these and the changes and differences in the presentation and use of time.

   One of the most common factors time is seen to affect and impact on is youth and aging. Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 73’ was the third in a group of four sonnets dealing with age and mortality. While the author was only in his mid-thirties when he wrote it, it is a sad, vivid reflection on his own death. It shows a deep insecurity about aging; the effect of time on his personal and physical appearance. In this poem, Shakespeare sees time as a negative influence, speeding him towards old age and death. It is possible that Shakespeare was referring to the death of youth rather than death itself. While this sonnet is the only one in the anthology that deals directly with the effect of time on youth, several others consider its effect on physical beauty and the lastingness of love.

   In ‘Sonnet 116’, Shakespeare, rather than considering time as a specifically positive or negative influence as in his earlier sonnet, he is defiant of time, “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks”. He personifies time as Grandfather Time, and suggests that while the physical beauty of “rosy and lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come”, love does not change with time; it is not dependant on the ephemeral nature of physical beauty. While Raleigh agrees with Shakespeare that physical appearances do not withstand the effects of time unscathed, in ‘The Nymph’s Reply’, the Nymph suggests the superficial love of the Passionate Shepherd by her pragmatic response and belief that only if “could youth last and love still breed” would she be tempted “to live with thee and be thy love”. The negative effect of time on love is a common concept in poetry of this era. The theme of time in this poem is established early on, in the opening line. This technique is also used in ‘To His Coy Mistress’. Like Shakespeare, in ‘The Nymph’s Reply’, time is personified, this time as an ‘eventual grim reaper’ to all beautiful things. While Shakespeare agrees with this interpretation, the love he describes can withstand this, unlike that of the Shepherd. The alliteration in line 5 of ‘The Nymph’s Reply’ suggests the continual passage of time and the repetition of the word “soon” in line 15 emphasises the inevitable destructive nature of time. It has been suggested that the poem is attacking how time has eroded away the spiritual purity of love and that material possessions and the trappings of love have become more prominent, however, this reading is in danger of taking the poem out of its historical context.

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   ‘'The Sun Rising'’ by John Donne is another example of the concepts of love and its relationship with time presented in the poetry of this anthology. In the opening stanza of the poem, Donne presents the crux of his argument that “must to they motions lovers’ seasons run?” He believes that lovers should not be governed by the rules of time. The rest of the world, the “late schoolboys…court-huntsmen…country ants” all need reminders of the “rags of time”, but love and lovers do not. This view compliments that presented in ‘Sonnet 116’ that “love’s not Time’s fool”, however Donne ...

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