Sonnet 55: Not marble nor the gilded monuments BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Question

Hi, can you help me to form questions and answers for this summary

Summary

The poet in Sonnet 55: Not Marble, Nor The Gilded Monuments,
says that his verse will survive longer than the marble statues and the
gold-plated monuments of the rich and powerful. With the passage of
time these monuments would wear a neglected look and unfaithful time
would take its toll and leave the monuments perishing. The word

‘marble’ in the above lines stands for the ornate statues of the princes,
that they get built to immortalize themselves. In the fourth line of this
sonnet, the poet refers to Time as ‘Sluttish, which is a derogatory word
and refer to a dirty, untrustworthy woman. The poet in this line calls
time ‘sluttish’ as it too is not loyal to anyone. Just as a slut loses her
charm and beauty with time, the princes and the powerful people, who
enjoy great privileges and popularity at one time lose them and are

forgotten with the passage of time.

Talking directly to his beloved, the speaker begins with some
confident words of assurance: no other memorials, however beautiful or
permanent, can outdo this sonnet, which will live longer and shine
brighter. Other human creations have to deal with time and violent war,
but this poem escapes both of these downers. And because this poem is a

poem of praise, preserving the memory of the beloved's beauty and all-
round rad-ness, there's good news: the beloved will also escape

destruction. In fact, he will live comfortably inside the sonnet and the
minds of readers until the end of the world itself. In other words: Don't
worry, I've got this. And you will last longer, immortalized in this poem,
than the stone statues and monuments, which will fade and became
dusty over time.

Dave_anon · Accepted Answer

Hi

That's good. One small point: you have cut and pasted this from a source where you a using a different page width. Because of that, we have lost some of the line spacing and paragraph spacing - which makes it look messy. I expect your original looked better. On another occasion, you might want to tidy up a 'cut and paste' before you hit the 'post' button.

If this is a summary for your own use or to share with like-minded students - or teacher - I think it's good. As a formal piece, though, for an exam, you have used some phrases that may not help you to get best marks:

-- 'these downers'

-- 'all-round rad-ness'

-- 'Don't worry, I've got this'

I liked those, but a strict examiner might not.

My own additional thoughts are:

- The sonnet, implicitly, is contrasting itself, a work of love, with the forces of war, which can only ever be a work of hate. Shakespeare, I think, is saying: I have chosen a form that is the opposite of war because I know that my writing, embodying love, will last longer than the passing hatreds of war.

- There is also, in the sonnet, a strong contrast between the solidity of marble and the frailty of something written on paper. You might think that something written on paper could not possibly withstand forces that destroy stone statues but, paradoxically, it does. You touch on that, but you could say that more definitely.

- In your last paragraph, you miss an irony that some modern readers will notice: in fact, the sonnet does not preserve the memory of the person for whom it is written. The identity of the young man for whom Shakespeare wrote the poem is lost - we may well never know who he was. On the other hand, the sonnet certainly preserves the writer's reputation long into the future.

Hope this may help,

Dave

Sonnet 55: Not marble nor the gilded monuments BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

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