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/
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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
Interpret (tell me why you think the poet wants to use such images)As such, a sense of gloom permeates the writing.
Many people fear death at the back of their mind, unconsciously dwelling over the surreal fact that they would have to come face to face with it some day, yet most do not bring themselves to explore it completely until it lurks in the corner or appears on their doorstep. The sonnet “And You as Well Must Die, Beloved Dust” and the dramatic monologue “Identification”, explores the concept of death and how each writer comes to grips with it. Both poems express reactions to the inevitable nature of death and the process of how one digests such a foreign, yet present occurrence. “Identification” is written by a wife who receives the news of her husband’s death and impulsively reasons as to why he simply could not have died. “And You as Well Must
Robert Frost and William Shakespeare have been celebrated by many people because of their ability to express themselves through the written word. Here we are years after their deaths analyzing these fascinating poems about life and death. It’s clear they had similar thoughts about this subject at the time of these writings, even though their characters could not have been more opposite. For both poets, life is too
The poem consists of many different uses of figurative language in order to connect snow to death. Cofer included the use of similes to allow the readers to make a connection to what she was saying, so that they could grasp a better understanding. An example of a simile can be found in lines 6-7: “the Caribbean sun winds up the world like an old alarm clock” (Cofer). The author is comparing two unlike things, the sun and an alarm clock, however they have a similar connection. The Caribbean sun is what wakes the world, just like an alarm clock does. The use of this simile adds to the poem’s meaning because it describes the life that the grandmother lives and that is warmth in her home in the Caribbean.
Death is something that at some point will come to each of us and has been explored in many forms of literature. “The Raven” and “Incident in a Rose Garden” are two poems that explore common beliefs and misconceptions about death. Though both poems differ in setting, tone, and mood there are surprising similarities in the literary tools they use and in the messages they attempt to convey. The setting and mood establish the tone and feel of a poem. In “The Raven” we are launched into a bleak and dreary winters night where a depressed narrator pines for his dead girlfriend.
In the first quatrain, the speaker contrasts his age is like a "time of year,": late autumn, when the "yellow leaves" have almost completely fallen from the trees and the boughs "shake against the cold." Those metaphors clearly indicate that winter, which usually symbolizes the loneliness and desolation, is coming. Here the reader would easily observe the similarity between the season and the speaker's age. Since winter is usually
Death is part of the human life cycle, approximately 151,600 people die each day. Everyone wonders how they will die, if they suffer, if it’s tragic or if it’s just simply peaceful. In each of the three poems the main focus is death. Each poem shows a different feeling about death. “Thanatopsis” by William Bryant, “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult and “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, all have different meanings of death.
Regardless of race, caste, religion, or age, every human has wondered about the one fact of life that unifies us all: What is death? Both poems, “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” by Margaret Atwood and “Because I could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson share a common subject of death. Using figurative language, both poems illustrate distinct takes on a similar topic.
Mortality is a moving and compelling subject. This end is a confirmation of one’s humanity and the end of one’s substance. Perhaps that is why so many writers and poets muse about their own death in their writings. Keats and John Donne are two such examples of musing poets who share the human condition experience in When I Have Fears and Holy Sonnet 1.
This is expressed by the multiple examples of old men whom regret certain aspects of their lives and defy death even when they know their time is up. The speaker is urging his father to fight against old age and death. The meaning and subject of the poem influence the tone and mood. The tone is one of frustration and insistence. Thomas is slightly angry and demanding. His words are not a request, they are an order. The mood of the poem is is serious and solemn due to the poem focusing mainly on the issue of death. This mood and tone is created by words such as “burn”(2), “Grieved”(11) and “rage”(3) along with phrases such as “crying how bright”(7), “forked no lightning”(5), “near death”(13) and “fierce tears”(17). The insistent feeling is also created by the repetition of the lines “Do not go gentle into that good night”(1), and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”(3). The figurative language used also affect how the meaning, tone and mood are interpreted.
William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayest in Me Behold" is a sonnet that examines the fears and anxieties that surround growing old and dying -- a topic that resonates within us all. Shakespeare's use of metaphor to illustrate decay and passing are striking, and sets a somber tone throughout. He uses the season of Fall, the coming of night, and the burning out of a flame as metaphors for old age and death, and then uses the last two lines to suggest that we should love and cherish life while we can.
The imagery that is used in this work consistently portrays a relaxed and dull day in winter. The poem begins to illustrate a mental image of “sun [on a] brief December day / [that] rose cheerless over hills of gray, / and, darkly circled, gave at noon / a sadder light than waning moon” (Lines 1-4). The cycles of the sun have continued for all of time and can provide a mood throughout the day. Although the sun is shown as melancholy, it appeals to the visual sense and provides suspense for the rest of the poem.
The first line of stanza four “Or rather-- He passed Us—“ (l. 13) demonstrates that the speaker is uncertain about her existence in the world. Now she feels that her life symbolized by the sun is passing by. She becomes chilled by the “dews” (l. 14). Lines three and four in this stanza illustrate the reason for her coldness. The speaker is attired in a light “Gown” (l. 15) and cape or “Tippet” made of “Tulle” (l. 16), which is a kind of thin, transparent, open meterial. When people die,
In the late 16th and early 17th century, London was ravaged by the Black Death, causing many people to ruminate on death and their mortality. Shakespeare was arguably affected also, indeed “death as a concept is a reoccurring theme within Shakespeare’s work; prevalent through sonnets, tragedies and medieval morality plays through the character of Death” (Courtney, 1995). Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 12”explores the physicality of death, by describing the physicality and impermanence of the natural world. In the first eight lines this is achieved in a traditional blazon format, perhaps to emphasise the physicality of earthly life. The speaker ruminates on the temporality of life through the image of death and decay and concludes that the only way in which to ensure ‘immortality’ is through procreation and continuation of the family line, so that he may not be forgotten after death.
Poetry is an art form that has often been highly regarded. It brings together some of the most complex forms of writing in the English language. Two poems that focus on the same topic may sometimes, have completely different views and provide perspectives that may not have been considered by the other. Two of these Poems are Let Me Die A Youngman’s Death by Roger McGough and On Death by Anne Killigrew. The former poem by Roger McGough talks of how the speaker does not wish to die the peaceful death of an elderly person but rather the chaotic death of a young man. In death is nothing at all the speaker proposes that all should be as happy as before his death, and not view it in such a negative and secretive light.