Response to Sonnet 55

This sonnet uses man made descriptors like monuments, war and masonry mixed with a reference to the Roman god Mars and a personification of “Judgement” in the biblical sense to persuade that this poem will make the subject live on longer than any other medium. The egotism presented in this poem is odd compared to the other poems that I have responded to thus far. They all were about making the subject feel wonderful, but this poem seems to say that only poetry is able to make the memory live on of the subject. This may be because Mr. W.H.’s parents finally gave up forcing him to procreate or the speaker of the sonnet was trying to say that without children to carry on his memory. It would not matter what monument is constructed because the subject will only live on in the sonnet read by lovers because Time would go over everything else like an unkempt housemaid and bury it up with dirt and grime over the years.