I chose Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73, quatrain 1 that consists of four lines.
“That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.”
In my translation this would be:
When you see the time of year where yellow leaves have fallen and branches are bare in the cold weather, you should think of me. When the birds have left and no music or joy can be heard, you should think of me.
In this part, the speaker is examining the effect on things around him during the season of autumn. He feels that everything has wilted and is about to die as the ending of a year is approaching. Likewise, we are able to clearly see in the next quatrain that the speaker is comparing his life to a season. Like the metaphor he uses, the speaker feels that he has reached the point in his life where his youth is gone and everything is ending. However, his life has not ended yet. Similarly, we see that during the season of autumn, nature began to wilt and eventually dies off when winter comes. The first quatrain introduces readers vaguely to the idea of the ending of certain things. Then the following next two quatrains present more narrow idea of aging and death. The most important element in this poem is time. In the first quatrain, the speaker compares his aging to a season, which is longer than a day, as compared in quatrain two. Then in the third quatrain, time is even shorter as we see the speaker compare his life to the short lived fire. Readers can feel that time is being compressed as the poem proceed from quatrain one to quatrain three, giving this poem a suspenseful tone.
This Sonnet takes the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. The sonnet’s metrical foot is iamb and it has a pentameter line length, also known as iambic pentameter. The first quatrain has an ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme with the couplet summarizing the theme of the poem. The form of the poem enhances the fluency of the words. Although, this restrict the numbers of syllables to ten but it connects and relate each of the fourteen lines of the poem together. The rhythm of the poem is very nice and steady as each line follows the iambic pentameter form. Each line illustrates a vivid image of things wilting and fading away as they approach the end.
In this sonnet, Shakespeare does acknowledge his old age, however, not necessarily complaining about it. The purpose of the poem is to convey the melancholy of old age while admonishing the young man to treasure his youth and love the people dear to him. We can see this from the couplet at the end of the poem.
ReplyDeleteThe fire mentioned in the third quatrain, might simply be a conventional metaphor of life or longevity. We do not know when it will go out, and that is the uncertainty of life. With this, the poet increased the effect of the melancholy of life and aging, as well as making his admonishments more powerful.
I'll begin with a grammar error. "When you see the time of year where yellow leaves has fallen". "Leaves" are plural, therefore "has" should be "have". As for the interpretation itself, I do not see where in the selection Shakespeare mentioned the speaker or anything relating to thinking of him/her.
ReplyDeleteA large problem I'm having is with the organization of your ideas; your ideas are jumping around the page. It is unclear when you are trying to talk about the whole poem or just your selection.
With that thought, I suggest trying to organize your ideas instead of writing as the ideas appear. I myself still have a problem with organization, so try to accept this as it is: constructive criticism.