IDGAF (Shakespeare's Version)
Sonnet 19
“Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets, and do what’er thou wilt, swift-footed Time” — Sonnet 19
Now, we’re all familiar with IDGAF (if not, Google it). It’s a wonderfully succinct way of stating the idea. However, occasionally, you want to really drive home the fact that you, in fact, do not give a… F. So, to assist you, I introduce you to Sonnet 19.
Sonnet 19 is one of my favorites. There, the speaker is telling off time itself for daring to make an absolute hottie age. Super relatable, I know (RIP 90s JTT). And Shakespeare’s language deriding Time provides wonderful turns of phrase for ones own deriding in daily life. But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself…
The Shakespeare Sitch
Sonnet 19 is one of the 154 sonnets penned by Shakespeare and published in 1609. As with most things Shakespeare related, there is a lot of scholarly debate around these sonnets. Did he publish them or were they published against his will (pun intended if thou wishes)? Who is the “W.H.” to which they are dedicated? Are they published in the chronology in which they were written, thus chronicling the speaker falling in love with the “Fair Youth” and losing that love to the “Dark Lady”, or were they penned haphazardly to no one in particular? Falling down that rabbit hole is fun for some (read: me), but I won’t get too in the weeds here.1
So what is a sonnet? A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a variable rhyme scheme. The format originated in Italy and evolved over time. The Shakespearean Sonnet was derived from the Petrarchan Sonnet, which had one 8-line stanza and one 6-line stanza. The English or Shakespearean Sonnet modified that form to be one stanza of three quatrains (a quatrain is four lines of alternating rhyme scheme, i.e. ABAB) concluding with a rhyming couplet, so the rhyme scheme can be diagrammed as ABABCDCDEFEFGG.
As is emblematic of the Bard, Shakespeare put his own twist on the convention by making the subject of several of the sonnets a man rather than a woman and by directly addressing the subject.2 The first 17 sonnets of the collection are referred to as the “Procreation Sonnets” as they attempt persuade the subject to ensure his beauty lives on by having children. Some argue the first 126 sonnets of the collection are all directed to this “Fair Youth” and much speculation has occurred in trying to identify the subject.3 However, others note that every sonnet does not identify the subject’s gender and there is evidence that the sonnets do not appear in the order in which they were written. I’ll let you all make your own conclusions… if you care to do so.
Which brings us to Sonnet 19. This sonnet is neither directed to the Fair Youth or the Dark Lady, but instead, to Time itself. In the first lines, Shakespeare paints a vivid picture of the destructive nature of “Devouring Time,” describing how it shaves down the nails of the lion’s paws, causes plants to rot and turn to dirt, pulls the tiger’s teeth from its jaws with age, and even causes the phoenix (a mythical creature said to be eternal) to once again transform. This graphic depiction of Time’s effect culminates in the speaker telling Time “Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet’st/And do what’er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,/To the wide world and all her fading sweets.” Meaning, IDGAF what you destroy in this world, Time, but don’t touch my man.
The speaker then forbids Time to age the speaker’s “love” and instead let him remain “untainted” by the effects of time. But then, in the concluding couplet, the speaker tells Time that it doesn’t matter what Time decides, because the words of the sonnets will preserve the love’s beauty, even if Time will not.
Speak the Speech, I Pray You
Bring Shakespeare’s words into your own life by:
Telling an ex to “make glad and sorry seasons as though fleet’st”;
Telling a driver who cut you off to “do what’er thou wilt, swift-footed [expletive of choice];
And… forbidding Time from aging your perfectly ripened avocados.
Additional Resources
Find a full copy of the sonnet here.
Listen to the mellifluous Sir Patrick Stewart read Sonnet 19 here.
For more information on these questions, read read “A Modern Perspective: Shakespeare’s Sonnets” by Lynne Magnusson available at https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/shakespeares-sonnets-a-modern-perspective/.
Id.
For more information read “The Mysterious Identity of the ‘Fair Youth’” by Jessica-May Smith available at https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/mysterious-identity-fair-youth/.