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Comparing Death And Sonnet 73

Decent Essays

Throughout history, humanity has been plagued by a knowledge of its own mortality.
Both “Sonnet to Death” by Heath Bailey and “Sonnet 73” by William Shakespeare explore the concept of death and illustrate its effects differently. The poems both have a somewhat optimistic approach, “Sonnet to death” portraying the grief death brings as insignificant in contrast to the happiness life yields through personification and optimistic tone, while “Sonnet 73” uses metaphor and imagery to portray the inevitability and tragedy of death, and to convey the idea that this inevitably and tragedy can make ones appreciation of life greater. Baily’s “Sonnet to Death” begins with a somewhat bleak tone, describing a “cold death who lays an icy hand on all/ …show more content…

Throughout the poem the speaker explains their old age through several metaphors, first comparing it to “That time of year [...] when yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang upon those boughs that shake against the cold” (1-3). The speaker compares death to winter, and old age to autumn. In a similar manner to the previous poem, death is once again compared to cold. The speaker then compares death to nighttime, and their old age to “the twilight of such day [...] which by and by black night doth take away.(5-6). The speaker, lastly, compares their age to “the glowing of such fire/ that on the ashes of his youth doth lie”(9-10). While all three of these metaphors seem to portray death with a despairing tone, the imagery is also important. In the first two stanzas the speaker uses imagery to depict darkness and cold, describing “boughs which shake against the cold” and “black night”(3)(7). This fits with the pessimistic tone established by the use of metaphor. However, in the last stanza the imagery becomes much warmer, as the speaker describes “the glowing of such fire/ That on the ashes of his youth doth lie”(9-10). While the metaphor does maintain the pessimistic tone, the imagery seems a lot less focused on cold or darkness, and the image of a fire, even one which is fading, conveys a far greater sense of warmth and light than the images of autumn and twilight do. This could be

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