Rhyme in Sonnet 19

This line makes the same claim as the final line in Sonnet 18: “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” Poetry can resist devouring time and preserve beauty and youth forever. However, unlike the formal strength that demonstrates poetry’s power in Sonnet 18, the weakness of the meter and rhyme in this line are an example of weak poetry that undermines his claim.

On a formal level, the speaker’s final argument falls apart. The end rhyme of “wrong”/“young” is a slant rhyme, and does not offer the full forcefulness of a typical rhyming couplet. The meter of the final line is conspicuously weak as well. The pentameter falters on “ever,” which forces the syllables into unnatural stress patterns. The noticeable weakness of the final couplet underscores the weakness of the speaker’s fight against time. Despite his attempts to preserve his love through verse, time cannot be bested.

“Devouring time” is a powerful way to begin this poem. The consonant sounds d and t are the voiced and unvoiced versions of the same consonant, while ng and m are similarly related. These consonant pairs compliment the connotations of “devouring”—animalistic, beastly, voracious—and begins the poem in a strikingly more violent, powerful tone than the previous sonnets.