Shakespeare Sonnet 71 Mood

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In the 16th century Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, also known as "The Lover's Quarrel" was circulated in London. The sonnets are written as personal address from a man to his love and it is debatable whether or not the set is autobiographical of his own life. The first 126 Shakespearian sonnets are concentrated on a young man and the last 28 refer to a shady lady. Sonnet 71 specifically focuses on the speaker's aging and impending death in relation to his young lover. In sonnet 71, the man is now fixed on his own death and how his love is to mourn for him after he has passed. The man tells his lover not to mourn for him when he has died, and that she should only think about him for as long as it takes her to tell the world. The speaker then tells …show more content…

A sound device is a tool that is used to create sound and a picture to better connect the reader to the written words. Vowel sounds such as the long O sound in the poem create a feeling of passing time and deepening thought. The time can be seen when the man pleads for his love to “no longer mourn” for him after he has passed (1). The use of meter and longer vowels paired with what is being said allows Shakespeare to successfully entwine the reader into the true meaning of what the man is trying to say. This interesting technique can be seen throughout the poem such as the time he begins to speak about the “vile world”(3). At first it may not be obvious but at close inspection the viiiiileeeee wooooorld shows time and deepened emotion. In parallel with sound devices he uses punctuation and caesura to slow parts in very strategic ways. The caesura comes into play to build on the theme of spoken word verses written word. The man expresses that “if you read this line, remember not” (5). He expects that as time passes his love will reread this poem but he doesn’t want her to remember. Lastly he uses know measurements and events to show the passing of time. When the man is ”compounded with clay”, dead in the ground, he still hopes that his love will still read his poem (10). Within this he uses many techniques to slow down the poem in order to make the reader think. It is clearly seen that the idea of time is paramount in this

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