Sonnet 12 Essay - 934 Words

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 quot;Iquot;, 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.†¦show more content†¦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 bristlyShow MoreRelatedCritical Analysis on Sonnet 12, Shakespeares Sonnets, by William Shake speare1592 Words   |  7 PagesWilliam Shakespeare wrote a group of 154 sonnets between 1592 and 1597, which were compiled and published under the title Shakespeares Sonnets in 1609. Our attention will focus on sonnet 12, a remarkable and poignant poem about the relentless passing of time, the fading beauty, immortality, death and Old Age, these subjects being typical of all Shakespeares Sonnets. Time is omnipresent in everyones life, just passing and passing inexorably, relentlessly, so unstoppable. 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Communicative Situation, Theme and Figurative Speech a) Communicative Situation In the poem â€Å"Sonnet on the Death of Mr. Richard West† by Thomas Gray, the speaker can be identified by the use of personal pronouns of the first person singular â€Å"me† (l.1) and â€Å"I† (l.13), as well as the possessive pronoun â€Å"my† (l.7,8). It can be assumed that the speaker is male, since he mentions