William Shakespeare has always been my favorite poet, therefore, if I have an opportunity to analyze his poems, I always do it during my classes. It is always interesting to find something new in the lines which have managed to become close to me and to my understanding of the world. The choice of Shakespeare’s poem for analysis was also because it contains many metaphors. Speaking about figurative analysis, it is important to check whether a poem has metaphors and other devices. Shakespeare’s language has always been full of language devices, therefore any of his poems are great in the analysis. Trying to make the discussion as effective as possible, I chose the poem full of figures and which may be easily considered from this perspective.
Speaking about the main metaphor in the poem, it is the old age and the death of the main character. Connecting these life processes with nature, the author creates a great parallel between autumn as the old age of a person and winter death. Imagining autumn, many people think about a close end of something warm. Such a parallel the author draws is not a surprise, as many authors tried to connect winter with the death, however, the idea of old age to present in the form of autumn is a new one. Shakespeare writes,
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 ruined choirs, where late, the sweet birds sang (Shakespeare, n.d.).
These are the first lines of the poem. The author gets acquainted the reader with the main character of an old age, whose life has almost finished. These lines show that the main character wants nothing, he just flows in the stream, and nothing new interests him/her. Describing in such a way human elderly age, Shakespeare shows that people usually know that winter (or the death) is close, and they just wait for it.
It is important to try to imagine the autumn discussed by the author and to try to relate the discussion to the human being. The first line, “That time of year thou mayst in me behold” (Shakespeare, n.d.) is the way how the author presents the theme of his discussion and the way how human life is positioned. Reading the poem, people understand from the first lines that the seasons are the periods of human life. Looking at nature, it really seems to express the life cycle of a person when the end of life in autumn with the winter-death.
The second stanza represents the very death of the character,
In me, thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest (Shakespeare, n.d.).
“Black night” is the expression which the author presents as the exact description of the death. Therefore, it may be concluded that the author gives effective metaphors in describing the death which may not be avoided. Stating that the winter is the final stage in the life of a person, Shakespeare strengthens his metaphor with calling the death night. Therefore, when winter comes, a person dies, at night, the part of the day which seems the most strange and mysterious for people.
Night is the time when all people go away. The mystery of night is used for expressing human death as death and night are the most mysterious issues in human life. When night comes and the moon is absent, nothing is seen. The same is with death, when a person dies, the darkness appears for him/her and cold is everywhere. Therefore, the author refers to winter night expressing death.
Unexpectedly, the author speaks about love,
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long (Shakespeare, n.d.).
It seems that this topic has been chosen for making people love their life. The author wants to say that love is more than death and old age. Reading the poem from these lines, the mood becomes better and it seems that the life is fulfilled with many moments which make it impressive and interesting. The issue of love in the poem is discussed from the point of view of the life cycle as well. Shakespeare states that people have to live when they have an opportunity; people have to understand that life is not that long and it may be too late to enjoy this light feeling. Therefore, the author advises to fall in love as much as possible and to love when people have a chance.
Speaking about the effectiveness and the contribution of the figurative language to the poem, it should be stated that the process of grooving older represented by the seasons of the year has always been used by different authors. It is obvious that the life cycle of a person is similar to the weather of the seasons. Applying to this particular metaphor, the author strengthens his discussion. The weather of the autumn and the weather of winter are the main characteristic features which make this poem strong. The importance of figurative language cannot be overestimated. First of all, the metaphor makes the picture clearer.
The author does not just say that he discusses an elderly period of human life, he tries to show how it happens. Using the nature, the author does all possible to make people imagine elderly age. Therefore, when it comes to the discussion of the elderly age many people do not understand what it means as being young no one thinks about it. The expression of love is also effective as the author unites three themes when love is mentioned. Therefore, the author tries to create dependence between love, old age and death by means of showing that when people are young they are not interested in their future and only having become older and having appeared on the threshold of death the lost opportunities and the passed love becomes the center of their interest.
In conclusion, it should be stated that old age, love and death are the main themes discussed in the poem. The Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 is impressive because such trivial themes are discussed by means of implementing metaphors. The main purpose of the metaphors is to make the discussion more vivid, to give a reader a clearer picture of the problems considered. Having united love, old age and death, the author wants to show the frequent duration of life. Having become old, people do not want anything and this is the time when people start thinking about their past life and the opportunities they failed to take.
Reference List
Shakespeare, W. Sonnet 73. Web.