Lines Seven And Eight The Speaker example essay topic

Explication of sonnet 30 William Shakespeare's thirtieth sonnet is one of his more somber and nostalgic poems. Full of melancholy language and legal terms, this sonnet explores the author's discontent with life as the he surveys his past life and all the sorrows it has brought him (Ox quarry). The poem follows the form of an English sonnet with 3 quatrains and a couplet, and has a rhyme scheme A BAB C DCD EFE F GG. In the initial quatrain, the poem establishes its two major ideas.

First Shakespeare uses the word sessions, which is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a? continuous series of sittings or meetings of a court, a legislative, administrative, or deliberative body.? These sittings provide a courtroom setting, which serves a foundation for all of his proceeding metaphors. He also creates a pondering mood with the phrase "sessions of sweet silent thought". The speaker uses the alliteration of the's sound to create a soothing mood in which to calmly begin to review his life.

The next line continues with more courtroom language by? summoning upon? the past events in the speaker's life. This line calls the court to order, indicating that the author's official review has begun (Krauthammer). Lines three and four carry a much sadder tone than that of the first. The author's tale becomes one full of? old woe? , or depressing memories, and? new wail? or recent sadness. At the start of the second stanza, the speaker finds himself pondering both feelings of sadness and regret. The fifth and sixth lines specifically refer to the deaths of loved ones and friends that he has outlived.

This is illustrated in the following phrase taken from line 6: "death's dateless night". This alliterated thought is a metaphor for the endless night, which is perceived to be life. In lines seven and eight the speaker recounts two more pains he has lived through in his depressing life. These are and "vanished sight (s)". In this quatrain the speaker cries, weeps, and moans.

The increasing sorrow is captured in lines seven and eight in the repeated alliteration "weep -- - woe" and "moan -- - many". It's as if the speaker is caught in a rhythmic sobbing. The third quatrain's tone changes from sorrow and anger, but this change is not the sonnet's turn. This quatrain begins with the speaker recalling grievances, wrongs committed against him. It continues this theme with "woes" in line ten. In line eleven we find the speaker moaning about past injuries in front of the metaphoric judge and jury.

It concludes with the observation that in remembering these woes he is suffering them again. The increased anguish of this quatrain is embodied in the increased and condensed doubling of words throughout the quatrain: "grieve -- - grievances,"woe -- - woe", bemoaned moan", and "pay -- - paid". This poor fellow is completely captured by his past. He is almost sputtering with useless hurt. This sets us up for the sonnet's conclusion.

Line thirteen's "But" announces the sonnet's turn. The speaker breaks free of the past by remembering his "dear friend". Continuing the courtroom language to the very end, the sonnet tells us that the friend "restores" all losses and brings this sorrowful remembering to an end. Note that in this sonnet the friend saves the speaker from himself. There were never any real wrongs and sorrows threatening the speaker - only the speaker's own sorrowful turn of mind. This couplet brings the poem to a rhythmic or musical conclusion by returning us to a very regular rhythm - just as the friend restores the speaker to a regular state of mind.

The last line is strictly iambic and neatly divided in two.