Shakespeare's Sonnet #73, published in 1609, is written in the Shakespearean or English sonnet style. It consists of three quatrains and one couplet at the end, written in iambic pentameters. Each quatrain has its own rhyme scheme, rhyming in alternating lines. The couplet summarizes the preceding twelve lines. Sonnet 73 appears to contain multiple parallels to death and the person speaking in the poem gives the impression that he is near death and reflecting back upon life.
The first quatrain, “That time of the year thou mayst behold me/ When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang/ Upon those boughs which shake against the cold/ Bare ruin choirs where late the sweet bird sang.” He seems to be comparing his life the unspecified season,
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Meaning, death will come, without question. He plays upon the sun setting, which in some cultures was a god dying every evening (and he would be reborn every morning). The sun setting could also be regarded as the sun going to sleep, which plays on the last line of the quatrain, "Death's second self, which seals upon rest." This line talks of the eternal sleep, or death. This quatrain suggests a night without the possibility of day, "seals upon rest."
In the third quatrain, “In me the glowing of such fire/ That on the ashes of his youth doth lie/ As the deathbed whereon it must expire/ Consuming with that which it was nourished by.” He seems to compare his life to fire, burning bright in youth, when energy and ideas bound forth, but eventually it all turns to ashes, fragments of the passing youth, essentially death. He also makes implications of lying upon the ashes, his deathbed, of days gone by, days when he was young and full of energy. The fire proposes finality, the non-cyclical process that night and the seasons are part of, which Shakespeare has worked towards in the poem.
The final couplet, “This thou percev’st which makes thy love more strong/ To love that well which thou must leave ere
as a part of the season which is known as spring; it can be assumed he means all life and all things are subject to the ravages of time. Mortality is all around us and with it the stages of all life and time pass. In terms of the opening lines, thought, youth and beauty are fleeting indeed.
The seasons in the poem also can be seen as symbols of time passing in her life. Saying that in the height of her life she was much in love and knew what love was she says this all with four words “summer sang in me.” And as her life is in decline her lovers left her, this can be told by using “winter” as a symbol because it is the season of death and decline from life and the birds left the tree in winter. The “birds” can be seen as a literal symbol of the lovers that have left her or flown away or it can have the deeper meaning that in the last stages of our life all of our memories leave us tittering to our selves.
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
Proceeding on to quatrain two, the poet continues to meditate by using images of decay; lofty trees, barren of leaves, white and bristly beard. Just as time progresses, day changes to night, and the young become old, summer becomes winter. In the warm weather, the trees were leafy and bountiful. They served as a canopy that sheltered herd of animals from the blazing sun (L.6). In winter, however, the lofty trees are now barren and stripped of their leaves. The outward appearance of the tree is pathetic and unsightly. The herd of animals will no longer seek shelter under the trees because they look lifeless. Shakespeare further elaborates the imagery of plant life decaying. Summer flowers are beautiful and they exemplify life. However, quite the contrary, Shakespeare states that these flowers are gathered together to be used as funeral arrangements and carried on the coffin over the white and bristly
The theme, in Sonnet 73, is the poet's aging. Each quatrain develops an image of lateness, of approaching extinction - of a season, of a day, and of a fire, but they also apply to a life (Abrams et al. 867). The poet compares his age to three images through the quatrains: autumn, the dying of the year (first quatrain); the dying of the fire (third quatrain). The first line draws a picture of himself, "in me," and in a certain time, "That time of year," of his life (surely, he is old now). We can see that the
This poem is interpreted as a farewell letter to Bradstreet’s husband. She decides to write the poem since she considers she lies on her death bed while giving birth. In the 16th Century death during childbirth was common, she is afraid of the chances death has with her. She expresses feelings of sorrow and sadness as the poem progresses. Written as an iambic pentameter poem with rhyming couplets. The author combines ideas of death, love and her dismiss from this world. She starts the poem by introducing death “Fading world hath end” (1), “adversity doth still our joys attend” (2), she describes death inevitability and how all thing come to an end. How happiness isn’t eternal. She comes to the conclusion that death is inescapable. Death is coming for the speaker “How soon, my Dear, death may my steps
This final metaphor is of death, and a reminder that all things must end. Shakespeare compares a flame dancing on the "ashes of his youth" to that of a person lying on his deathbed, where both "must expire".
William Shakespeare’s Sonnet #55 is a Shakespearian sonnet. It contains three quatrains, or four line stanzas, and ends with a couplet. The poem is written in iambic pentameter William Shakespeare’s Sonnet #55 is a Shakespearian sonnet. It contains three quatrains, or four line stanzas, and ends with a couplet. The poem is written in iambic pentameter.
has the gentle heart of a woman but is not inconsistent as is the way
Throughout the poem, the author utilizes metaphors in order to enhance the notion that rather than giving in to adversity, those who face challenges should persevere through their ailments, particularly death and illness. In the beginning of the poem, the author expresses that although “wise men at their end know dark is right” (4), instead of allowing the “night” to conquer, they must “rage against the dying of the light” (9). Considering that a wise man’s end generally means his demise, the concept of darkness and night refer to his death as well. The author indicates that instead of “go[ing] gentle into that good night” (1), which would be the most effortless and undemanding option, “old age should burn and rage at the end of the day” (2).
In the third stanza, the speaker praises the urn for its eternal youth and zeal. "Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed your leaves, nor ever bid the spring adieu.”(lines 21-22) He admires the trees that cover the lovers for they will not loose their leaves over the changing seasons. For this he it seems is grateful and feels happy. Moreover, the use of word spring is of key importance for spring signifies the start of a new seasonal cycle of
Shakespeare’s sonnet 60 expresses the inevitable end that comes with time and uses this dark truth to express his hopefulness that his poetry will carry his beloved’s beauty and worth into the future in some way so that it may never die. This love poem is, as all sonnets are, fourteen lines. Three quatrains form these fourteen lines, and each quatrain consists of two lines. Furthermore, the last two lines that follow these quatrains are known as the couplet. This sonnet has the rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, as most Shakespearean sonnets follow. In each of the three quatrains, Shakespeare discusses a different idea. In this particular sonnet, the idea is how time continues to pass on, causing everything to die. The couplet connects these ideas to one central theme, this theme being Shakespeare’s hope for the beauty of his beloved’s immortality through his poetry’s continuation into future times.
Edmund Spenser’s Sonnet 67 is one of 85 sonnets from Amoretti which was written about his courtship of Elizabeth Boyle. Spenser and Boyle were married in 1594. Sonnet 67 uses a hunting themed metaphor common in 16th century England comparing the woman to a deer and the man to a huntsman in pursuit. Sonnet 67 appears to have been inspired by an earlier work by Petrarch, Rima 190, but with a different ending. In this paper we will take an in depth look at this work, also commonly referred to as “ Lyke as a Huntsman”.
During the Renaissance period, most poets were writing love poems about their lovers/mistresses. The poets of this time often compared love to high, unrealistic, and unattainable beauty. Shakespeare, in his sonnet 18, continues the tradition of his time by comparing the speakers' love/mistress to the summer time of the year. It is during this time of the year that the flowers and the nature that surround them are at there peak for beauty. The theme of the poem is to show the speakers true interpretation of beauty. Beauties worst enemy is time and although beauty might fade it can still live on through a person's memory or words of a poem. The speaker realizes that beauty, like the subject of the poem, will remain perfect not in the
At the time this poem was written, time, in the eyes of the people, seemed to move toward a single event, the last judgement (Mary). The last judgment is a belief in the Christian faith that all souls will face a day of judgement for their sins. The first quatrain discusses the concept of time wearing on in conjunction with the negative effects of death and decay (Mary). Although time itself cannot be physically manipulated, there is still an ever-present hope burning inside humans to control time. Ultimately, humans long to live forever but as reality dictates, all living things must die. Shakespeare works around this reality by channeling that hope into the immortality of literary works specifically poetry. This message is conveyed early in the poem with the lines, “Nor marble nor the gilded monuments / Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme” (1-2). “This powerful rhyme” (2), is a reference to the poem itself and Shakespeare compares its endurance to that of monuments and grave stones (Almedia). These lines indicate the strength in the poetry itself as monuments and grave stones are items that are considered to exist for a time close to eternity. The discussion of time is