Sonnet 55 by Shakespeare; "Not Marble nor the Gilded Monument"   
Not marble nor gilded monument 
 Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish time.
 When wasteful war shall statues overturn, 
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor mars his sword nor war’s quickfire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
Gainst death and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this and dwell in lovers’ eyes.    
William Shakespeare uses this poem to challenge the test of time and travel into the unseen future to come, which is now evident in our era, though, surface reading of this poem will unconsciously takes one psyche initially to awareness of natural resources in respective of their  strength and their importance to the human world. 

Moreover, there are other deeper sense that can be seen in the poem which include, permanency of the poem, and permanency of poetry.
Deconstruction theory as proposed by Paul de Man and Jacque Derrida state that there is no permanent meaning to a literary work. Fiction or any literary work has different faces, and one face leads to the other faces, therefore the real meaning of a work cannot be pointed down to a specific meaning.

This confirms that meaning is stocked in the mind of the reader. The meaning attached to a work of art varies based on different reasons, it could be due to time, experience, period, genre, mood and any other sociological or psychological factors that can aid interpretation of works. The state of mind of a reader will determine what kind of interpretation to be given to a work of art. This means, even if the author of a work has an intention attached to the work written, other interpretations can be derived from such work.

Another factor that aids interpretation is culture. Since understanding is based on culture, interpretation of works will therefore be cultural based, this means that a work of art can be interpreted differently due to difference in culture.

“Not Marble nor the Gilded Monuments” as other literary works has different interpretations attached to it. The poem at its initial or surface meaning is attached to a lover, generally believed, Shakespeare is addressing “a fine young man” –his friend- whom he adores and respect a lot. Just like the feature of sonnet during that period which is based on “courtly love” it is believed that all the poem written by Shakespeare is addressed to his friend, and in this poem, Shakespeare praised him and says that his memory can never vamoose, it will remain forever.

But on the other hand, what if his lover is poetry itself, what if after second and deeper reading one detects that the love he was referring to is actually poetry itself and not a fictional man. And Shakespeare forecasts that poetry will always live and live forever, even amidst its contemporaries and rivals it will still triumph. 

Shakespeare opens by addressing his lover that “not marble not the gilded monuments” “ of princess shall outlive this powerful rhyme”. Line 1 and 2, these two opening lines carry the immediate intention of the poet, that what he loves shall live forever even that the accessories own by the royalties cannot outlive his love. 

He furthers by speaking to the love directly that “but you shall shine more brightly in these contents” than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish time.” Shakespeare here sees the future of his love that he shall shine from time to time, even that the sluttish time. Though the time seems slow and is very sluttish, which might try to take away the beauty of his love, rather than the love to lose his beauty, he will continue to shine, instead of time to work negatively on it, the opposite will happen.

It is a general believe that with time everything will lose its beauty, both living and non-living things, but the poet posits that, time will always work in the advantage of his lover and not in his disadvantage.

The next quatrain divines another fortune of his lover, he assert that his memories can never be uprooted or destroyed like other masonry, 
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
The poet asserts that just as war shall overturn statues made for the royalties and the dignitaries in the society and even destroy the work of art, his lover cannot be uprooted, his love cannot die just as how other fancy and beautiful things are perishing, he furthers that sword shall be destroyed by war, but the sharp words and memories of his lover can never be destroyed. 

During war, everything is destroyed but never can his lover be destroyed, he will continue to shine and shine while other things are perishing, which means his lover is imperishable, he shall live for ages. 

The next quatrain fashioned out that even in the face of his lover’s enemy, he shall always pace forth, and his lover shall always outshine his counterparts:
‘Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
The second couplet of the above quatrain therefore asserts that even before other descendants, his lover shall be praised and adored, when every other descendants are spreading all over the world, his own accolade shall still be there. 

The poet therefore concludes in the last couplet that:
So, till judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.  
Till everything in the world comes to an end, his lover shall live and live forever even till the judgment day.

From the analysis above, the lover in which the poet is addressing could be either of the three lovers, either the “fine young man” the particular poem, or poetry in general, and each having their pointers pointing to it.

Shakespeare is known to refer to his lover as a young man, therefore in this context, he praises the man that his memories can never be forgotten, the memory of his lover (the fine young man who happens to be his friend) will continue to live in him (the poet) forever till the day of eternity.

He asserts that, even if the lover is dead already, till the day of judgment his memory will always remain shining, glittering and strong even amidst his counterpart, when he shall also arise. “so, till the judgment that yourself shall arise,” “you live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes”

The lover which the poet refers to can also be the poem itself, that is the particular poem and the poet saying that from generation to generation this particular poem shall be loved and read by its ‘lovers’, it will outlive time, it will outlive other poem (posterity) written before, then and after the poem, respect and accolades shall be given to the poem. And there is nothing or no other work of art that will outlive the poem.

And lastly, the lover could be poetry in general. The poet is known for his love for arts, therefore, he could be referring to poetry, that it will outlive other genre of literature (all-obvious enmity, posterity).

No one can live for generations till judgment day, no particular poem is literarily the only loved poem, but often times, poetry in general has withstood the test of time. It is known as the first genre of literature, in fact, during the classical period literature is referred to as poetry, this shows how old poetry is and it has never lost its beauty, power and autonomy over other genres of literature.

It is known that drama and prose is given birth to by poetry, yet, they do not overthrow poetry, respect is being given to poetry worldwide and it will forever be loved by its lovers.

The use of the plural forms of lover (lovers) in the last line shows that the poet only is not the admirer of the love, the love is being admired by many people of different generation and different time.

According to Jacques Derrida, a deconstructive critics carries out his criticism for two purposes, to reveal the text’s decidability and to reveal the complex operations of the ideologies of which the text is constructed. This poem analysis has been able to achieve these purposes in that, the lover of the poet cannot be linked down to one in particular but remained open to different interpretation and suggestion by readers.   

© Joshua Oladebo, 2022.