a "calm, iambic meter". Arbour argues that this sensation of waves crashing culminates at the beginning of the third line, in which a spondee, a foot with two stressed syllables, represents this climax. However, Carl Atkins claims that the first two lines are "answered directly by two regular lines". Despite this disagreement, both critics acknowledge that the non-iambic feet simulate the undulating and crashing waves that Shakespeare portrays in the first line of the sonnet. While Vendler emphasizes the meter of the first quatrain, Atkins and Arbour continue this analysis by examining the second quatrain. After the first quatrain, the next trochee occurs in the middle of line 5, the only medial trochee of the sonnet, followed by trochees at the beginning of the sixth and seventh lines. The sixth and seventh lines mirror the first two lines of the sonnet in form, drawing attention to their common theme of birth—the waves near the shore and children grow toward maturity—and death—minutes reach their conclusion as the children's glory is destroyed. The non-linear pattern of the second quatrain also draws attention to the quatrain's "slowness and repeated breaks [which suggest] the labour of human life which Time hinders at every step". This contrasts greatly with the "smoothness of the first quatrain, describing the work of time, in which each line [after the initial trochee] runs to its end like the ripple to which it compares the succession of minutes". Therefore, while these three critics may examine and emphasize different aspects of the meter in the sonnet, all three maintain that the meter helps convey and facilitate the main themes of the sonnet. Analysis and criticism This poem has many competing images, including time, conflict, and the sea. In Stephen Booth's thorough criticism of Sonnet 60, he remarks that of the battle that the speaker attempts to wage against time in his effort to be together with the youth. The words chosen by Shakespeare such as toil, transfix, fight, contend, glory, confound, and scythe all hint at a violent conflict to which the speaker finds himself irreversibly attached. The conflict of the speaker relates to how best to solve the problem of time, yet he initially sees no counter to time's devastating attacks. Lopez dives into more detail about this conflict, focusing on the death and destruction that Sonnet 60 describes The second quatrain explains life's cycle, presenting the journey from birth