Shakespeare’s sonnet 55 deals with the idea that his friend, his love will be made immoral in these verses, though everything else will be lost through war, “sluttish” time, or other violent forces. Shakespeare considers poetry as superior, and the only assurance of immortality in this world, but lowers this particular sonnet itself as being unworthy of his friend. Thus, his theme is that everything will be destroyed and forgotten except the friend, who will be praised forever, because he is immortalized in these lines.
This, he proves by comparing his verse with marbled, gilded monuments of the princes. He is glad to declare that these great monuments too have been ravaged by time and are in a state of utter neglect. But neither time nor any other mode of destruction can reduce the effect of his ‘powerful rhyme’ in which his friend has been shining through ages.
The poet goes on to say that wars and broils too have done great damage to the great statues and great buildings of architecture. As a result, these once popular buildings and statues will be destroyed. But neither Mars, his sword nor any devastating fire resulting from the wars can burn the verses in which the poet has immortalized his friend. His love for his friend is inevitable when he ensures that death or any sort of enmity would not rue his friend as he ‘shall pace forth’ to be remembered till posterity until the day of Last Judgment. Thus, the poet immortalises his friend forever in his verses.
