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Shakespeare Sonnet 2 Analysis

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Shakespeare's Exploration in Sonnet 2 of the Themes of Age and Beauty · Look closely at effects of language, imagery and handling of the sonnet form. * Comment on ways in which the poem’s methods and concerns are characteristic of other Shakespeare sonnets you have studied. The second of Shakespeare’s sonnets conveys an argument the poet is making somewhat implicitly to a subject whose identity is hazy and unknown to the reader, even in retrospect. The simplified argument is an attempt by Shakespeare to persuade his subject to produce an heir and therefore retain his beauty through his child, to avoid wasting such beauty. The opening quatrain through use of imagery focuses on the …show more content…

Beauty is conveyed through natural words such as ‘field’, which suggests smoothness seems to contrast with the military imagery roughness of trenches. The poet further emphasises the beauty of his subject’s youth through splendid words such as ‘livery’ and ‘proud’, which are characteristic of a contrast with time’s negative implications and eventual affects. The use of the comma on line 3 has the effect of creating an anticipatory pause – preparing the reader for a comparison between the present, where his subject is admired by all (‘so gaz’d on’ reflects this), and the future. Further contrast is created through the repeated use of natural imagery, although the effect of this in its negative sense – the image of a ‘tatter’d weed’ - refers back to the sense of time’s physical effect. The second comma use seems to emphasise - through creating a pause, which draws the reader’s attention to the words following -Shakespeare’s point, and the idea that his subject will be ‘of small worth held’ is in direct opposition to ‘so gaz’d on’. Such oppositions help create the sense that an argument is in process. The following two lines describe the literal idea of his subject being asked what has happened to his subject’s beauty after it has been eroded by time. This concept may be familiar to the reader through its gossipy tone; and specifically the questioning and

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