In modern times, youth and beauty is an image seen everywhere. For example, a Versace billboard, magazine ad, TV commercial, all of which displays images of beautiful people. But what happens when this beauty fades? Shakespeare in his 12th sonnet talks about his experience and fading beauty. The purpose of this poem is to encourage a young man to not lose his beauty to the ravages of time. In order to do this, one must reproduce so beauty will live.
In the first quatrain, Shakespeare begins his meditation on the process of decay. He begins the poem with "I", which signals that Shakespeare will later give his own experience and account. The first object presented in this sonnet is a clock, which is to set the mood of the poem.
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The idea Shakespeare tries to convey is that death takes everything. The violet was once beautiful and strong but as time passes, the violet will age and become frail. Shakespeare proceeds to speak of black sable curls hiding behind white. I have two observations about this line; the first being that as a man ages he will notice more white hairs on his head. The man will lose the vibrant black curls he once had as a young man. Second, Shakespeare may be implying to the young man that his hair too will become gray.
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
In "Sonnet 73", the speaker uses a series of metaphors to characterize what he perceives to be the nature of his old age. This poem is not simply a procession of interchangeable metaphors; it is the story of the speaker slowly coming to grips with the finality of his age and his impermanence in time.
“Sonnet 116” written by William Shakespeare is focusing on the strength and true power of love. Love is a feeling that sustainable to alterations, that take place at certain points in life, and love is even stronger than a breakup because separation cannot eliminate feelings. The writer makes use of metaphors expressing love as a feeling of mind not just heart as young readers may see it. To Shakespeare love is an immortal felling that is similar to a mark on a person’s life.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (“Sonnet 18”) is one of Shakespeare’s most famous poems. It is the model English, or Shakespearean sonnet: it contains three quatrains and a finishing couplet.. The poem follows the traditional English sonnet form by having the octet introduce an idea or set up the poem, and the sestet beginning with a volta, or turn in perspective. In the octet of Sonnet 18, Shakespeare poses the question “Shall I compare the to a summer’s day” and basically begins to describe all the bad qualities of summer. He says it’s too windy, too short, too hot, and too cloudy. Eventually fall is going to come and take away all the beauty because of the changes nature brings. In the sestet, however, his tone changes as he begins to talk about his beloved’s “eternal summer” (Shakespeare line 9). This is where the turn takes place in the poem. Unlike the summer, their beauty will never fade. Not even death can stop their beauty for, according to Shakespeare, as long as people can read this poem, his lover’s beauty will continue to live. Shakespeare believes that his art is more powerful than any season and that in it beauty can be permanent.
Naturally, Shakespeare’s very first Sonnet deals with themes of procreation and immortality, literally and figuratively birthing his series of Sonnets. Ideas of Genesis, or the creation of the world, show strong traces throughout the poem and serve as the piece’s main focus according to literary critic Helen Vendler. The sonnet also deals with the logistics of beauty; we want the most beautiful people to have children, so their beauty will be preserved forever—when the parent dies, the child they leave behind will remind us of their own beauty. Shakespeare utilizes metaphors in his language to help promote this idea, for example the image of a bud, growing until it inevitably dies and diminishes. Unlike flowers, Shakespeare tells us here that we humans have the opportunity to keep this beauty everlasting. The very beginning of Shakespeare’s infamous series of sonnets, Sonnet 1 celebrates the beauty of procreation and offers a plea for humanity centered around our duty as humans to procreate and let our legacies live on, so our spirits can live vicariously through generations of our children.
In this sonnet, Shakespeare uses metaphor to create a vivid image in the reader's mind of the passage of time, old age, and death by describing the Fall season, the end of a day, and the burning out of a flame.
the first of the two lines he uses the word ‘mark’ which means buoy to
In sonnet 95, the speaker depicts a paternal feeling while speaking to the addressee, where indeed the poet reminds his audience about way appearance can be so deceiving. The young man is relying on his good appearance to veil his sexual immorality. Being that he is handsome and attractive, people are reluctant to disapprove his behavior. In the first quadrant, the poet employs different stylistic devices, which include simile, as the young man is likened to a fragrant rose, and on the other hand, he is compared to a destructive worm, but all his dark side of life is hidden under his good looking and charming nature. What is important about this poem is the manner in which the speaker reminds the young man about his bad behavior and draws examples that makes him feel sorry about what he does behind his good-looking nature. By the use of diction, imagery, diction, images, metaphors and other figures of speech, such as tone of voice, allusions, syntax and structure of the speech, the speaker warns the young man against his sexual immorality, and reminds him that there are detrimental risks associated with his behavior if he does not change.
The ending couplet sums up the main idea of the sonnet. It continues with the image of eternity and the memory of the addressee. When Shakespeare writes “So, till the judgment that yourself arise / you live in this and dwell in lovers eyes” there is still an emphasis on the word of the poem itself.
has the gentle heart of a woman but is not inconsistent as is the way
Donne even goes so far as to command God to destroy the person he has
The majority of Elizabethan sonnets reflect two major themes: time and love. William Shakespeare, too, followed this convention, producing 154 sonnets, many of which deal with the usual theme of love. Because the concept of love is in itself so immense, Shakespeare found several ways to capture the essence of his passion. Therefore, in his poetry he explored various methods and used them to describe the emotions associated with his love for a mysterious "dark lady." These various ideas and views resulted in a series of sonnets that vibrantly depicts his feelings of true, undying love for his lady. Instead of making the topic less interesting, as some might expect, Shakespeare's myriad approaches
True to sonnet form, the second quatrain confirms the previously presented argument, and poses a similar question as the anguish of the speaker and the dilemma of time’s progression are heightened. Line 5 starts with “O,” eliciting the speaker’s great anguish at the predicament of time and it is accented, breaking the traditional iambic pentameter meter in which Shakespeare writes:
Sonnet 6 is notable for the ingenious multiplying of conceits and especially for the concluding pun on a legal will in the final couplet: "Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair / To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir." Here, as earlier in the sonnet, the poet juxtaposes the themes of narcissism and death, as well as procreation. "Self-willed" echoes line 4's "self-killed," and the worms that destroy the young man's dead body will be his only heirs should he die without begetting a child which shows the theme of death. The whole sonnet is about trying to persuade the man to have a baby hence the theme if procreation. And lastly, the man is being selfish in wanting to die without passing on his beauty.
In his poem, “But love whilst that thou mayst be loved again”, he focuses on warning women to find love soon because beauty will not last with age. He compares a woman’s beauty to a flower: “the fairest flower that ever saw the light / men do not weigh the stalk for what it was / when they find her flower, her glory, pass” (Daniel 6, 13-14). Through this metaphor, he shows how men view beauty in love. No one looks at a dead flower and thinks about what it used to be, rather, he or she looks towards other flowers that bloom with life and colour. This sonnet begins as an admiration for his subject’s beauty, but it ends by telling the subject that when her physical beauty deteriorates, no one will love her. This poem reflects society’s fixation on superficial beauty because it reminds women that they will never find love without external beauty, as a result of the superficiality of men in society. Both poems of the Renaissance Period assert the idea of perfection and the importance of physical beauty in love and relationships.
Shakespeare uses two powerful metaphors in line five and in line six to compare the summer's imperfections to the perfection of the beloved. In line five he uses a metaphor "Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines" to describe that in the summer the sun gets to hot and this is yet another imperfection of a summer day which the beloved is superior to. Although some may compare there beloveds eyes with the glow or beauty of "the eye of heaven" here the speaker has chosen to claim the opposite saying that the sun is inferior to his beloved in that her eyes are more beautiful. In line six of the poem the idea of the sun being imperfect is further enhanced by phrase "gold complexion dimmed" this is implying that the sun is imperfect in that it is not always hot enough. Here the speaker implies that the beloved is flawless in that her complexion is never changed, remaining "gold" like. Nature that surrounds us is beautiful, the trees, ocean, and the wild life, and although the speaker makes a point to disfigure the view of nature the intention of the poet is to reinforce the beauty of the beloved.