Walter Raleigh Parallelism

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A father communicates his dying advice to his son before his execution in Great Britain. Evidently, this depicts the warning of three things one might encounter in the world: the wood, the weed, and the wag. As shown, the author, Sir Walter Raleigh, employs certain stylistic techniques to display and explicitly explain the author's advice towards his son. To embark, Raleigh thoughtfully employs parallelism, assonance, tragic symbolism, and lively metaphor to depict his warnings about the tragic world. In the first quatrain, Raleigh utilizes assonance to grab his son's attention about the beauty of the world; thus, this beauty results in an image of caution when they meet. Consequently, he warns his son of his bad behavior in order to keep him …show more content…

Not only that, the assonance emphasizes the beauty of life through the connection of the phrases. Despite this, Raleigh describes, "But on a day, they meet all in one place, / And when they meet, they one another mar." To explain, Raleigh objectifies the concept of a jovial time to enhance his concise tone. Evidently, he sternly shares that his life will suffer if he does not take care of his current self. All in all, this quatrain introduces the notion of warning through juxtaposition of beauty and its eventual detrimentation. In the second quatrain, he delves into the concepts that he warns his son of utilizing symbolism and parallelism. As a result, he develops his stern tone in order to convey the trepidation he feels for his son's future. To share, it proclaims, "The wood is that which makes the gallow tree / The weed is that which strings the hangman's bag." As such, he introduces tough, mature notions through parallelism, which his naive son must understand to survive in the real world. Evidently, the the "gallow" and "hangman" both symbolize the cruelty of the world, which reflects Raleigh's experiences through …show more content…

Thus, he desperately wants his son to consider the previously stated warnings of death in order to achieve a fulfilling life. In essence, the second quatrain depicts the key ideas through symbolism; as a result, his son will soon realize the reality of his father's advice as he lives life. In the third quatrain and the turn, Raleigh thoroughly emphasizes the importance of paying attention to the hardships of life through lively metaphor and an impactful tone. To explain, the world changes and his son needs to prepare himself for the tragic future. To begin, he solemnly expresses, "Green springs the tree, hemp grows, the wag is wild, / But when they meet, it makes the timber rot." To illustrate, Raleigh compares the concept of life and the cruel world to the comely image of nature. However, this transforms into a horrific image, which further warns his son to stay attentive to his surroundings and actions. Furthermore, Raleigh elicits, "Then bless thee, and beware, and let us pray, / We part not with thee at this meeting

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