"Sonnet: To Time" by Sylvia Plath

In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Sonnet: To Time” the focus is on time’s passing. This subject is frequented in many texts as it is relevant to all humans, no matter the age or culture. The sonnet is English because it presents the issue of time, describing it in various situations and summarizing it in the final couplet describing time as a, “great machine of iron bars/ That drains eternally the milk of stars.” This turning point that occurs in the last two lines very obvious. It is separated from the previous quatrains and the language shifts as well. Previously, the poem was descriptive of time’s role in life. Then in the turn, it describes time as a machine that robs everything of life. The structured nature of the sonnet lends itself to the idea of time’s mechanical, and heartless, precision.