Question

What is the central idea of the sonnet?

Read Shakespeare's "Sonnet 100."
Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long
To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?
Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song,
Darkening thy power to lend base subjects light?
Return, forgetful Muse, and straight redeem
In gentle numbers time so idly spent;
Sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem
And gives thy pen both skill and argument.
Rise, resty Muse, my love's sweet face survey,
If Time have any wrinkle graven there,
If any, be a satire to decay,
And make Time's spoils despised every where.
Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life,
So thou prevent'st his scythe and crooked knife.
O The speaker considers his love to be his muse.
O The speaker wants his muse to help him immortalize
his love.
O The speaker fears that his love is growing old faster
than he would like
O The speaker thinks that his muse is forgetful and
lazy and wastes a lot of time.

Answer 1

The speaker wants his muse to help him immortalize his love.

Step-by-step explanation:

William Shakespeare wrote many of his poems in the form of a sonnet. In total, he wrote 154 sonnets using the form which we now refer to as the Shakespearean sonnet. It consists of three quatrains and a couplet, its rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg, and the lines are written in a meter called the iambic pentameter.

In Sonnet 100, the speaker speaks to his muse, asking her to help him immortalize his love. He scolds her for leaving him, asking her to rise and return to him. He needs her help. He wants to immortalize his love through poetry, to create something that will remain even after he passes. We can see this in the following line: Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life.