Preview

An Analysis of "Sonnet 30"

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
502 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
An Analysis of "Sonnet 30"
An Analysis of "Sonnet 30" by William Shakespeare

"Sonnet 30" by the great William Shakespeare is a vastly contrasting poem in the sense that it presents its rather large main problem in twelve sorrow filled lines and solves this same rather large problem with a simplistic two lines. The poem starts by painting a vivid mental picture of a forlorn person who is lounging all by themselves in a solitary and placid place while pondering deeply on all the memories of the past. The author illustrates this mental image throughout the entire poem by using diction that conjures up deep feelings of reminiscence, regrets and sorrows of the past. Much of this diction depends on negative words that have a common thread. The thread that connects all this diction together is that a large majority of these chosen words have to do with weeping and mourning. Like many people who choose to conjure up the past, the subject of this poem looks down on his past and regrets the things that he sought after but just never seemed to have the power to be able to obtain. By saying, "And with old woes new wail my dear times waste:" the subject shows that he is not turning a blind eye regarding the fact that he is wasting his valuable and present time by looking at his past sorrows, but yet he does nothing to avoid this waste. The subject goes on to say that he drowns his usually arid eyes in mourning tears for his friends of the past who, in the end, were ultimately consumed by death. With this thought still sitting in his mind the thought drifts in of the weeping memories of love that has been lost and the memories of sights that have long since vanished into time. In midst of all this mourning taking place and ravaging the subject, he goes on to say that he can grieve over things that he used to grieve over that have already come to pass. He continues on to say that he goes heavily from bad thoughts to more bad thoughts and telling himself over the sad stories of all the bad things that

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    John D. Rockefeller Senior is one of the most famous industrialists to date. His fame is well deserved, through decades of hard work that brought prosperity to the American petroleum industry. Rockefeller has been called philanthropist, "great man" 1 "industrial statesman…, robber baron" , thief and other titles of both pleasant and unpleasant nature. His ways of conducting business brought him fame, fortune, and a lawsuit that broke up the Standard Oil Company. Despite these questionable business practices, John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company greatly contributed to the economy, and the well-being of the United States and its people. "The life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., was marked to an exceptional degree by silence, mystery, and evasion."…

    • 4521 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The art of seduction has been accomplished in numerous ways throughout history and has always remained dependent on the assumed appeal of the person being seduced. In Shakespeare's “Sonnet 130”, the genre of Carpe Diem was exemplified with a largely satirical approach. In doing so, the speaker tried to appeal to his mistress by appealing to ethos with Aristotle's first version of ethos, appeal of your own good character, more specifically, will-power or arete, as well as Aristotle's second version of ethos, appealing to the character of one's audience.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    AP english sonnet essay

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Both poems describe, show examples, and compare things to their loves, yet both have different attitudes towards their lovers. Edmund says noble things about his lover, and William says ruthless things about his lover.…

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The period of European history referred to as the Renaissance was a time of great social and cultural change in Europe. It spanned from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century, and was regarded as the rebirth of antiquity. It was a time in which learning was transformed, and became an age of daring experimentation.…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sonnets and the Form of

    • 1124 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Some poems have definite patterns and structures, one of the most common poems are sonnets. The structure of a sonnet helps explain what the sonnet is saying and might have underlying meaning in the sonnet. Three sonnets that are affected by their structure are, “Sonnet” written by Billy Collins, “A Wedding Sonnet for the Next Generation” by Judith Viorst, and “My Mistress’ Eyes are nothing Like the Sun” by William Shakespeare.…

    • 1124 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Love, Not Life, Lasts Forever In William Shakespeare?s Sonnet "73," the speaker invokes a series of metaphors to characterize the nature of his old age. The structure of the sonnet also contributes to the meaning of the poem. In the first quatrain, there is the final season of a year; then, in the second quatrain, only the final hours of a day; and then, in the third quatrain, the final minutes of a fire, before the couplet resolves the argument. The metaphors begin in the first quatrain and continue throughout the sonnet, as one by one they are destroyed, just like the life that is being spoken about. This poem is not simply a procession of interchangeable metaphors; it is the story of the speaker slowly realizing the finality of his life and his impermanence in time. Through the use of the structure of "Sonnet 73" and the metaphors that describe the speaker?s death, Shakespeare conveys that while life may be short, if one can love during that lifetime, that love can live forever.…

    • 1070 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sonnet 29 Tone

    • 237 Words
    • 1 Page

    William Shakespeare uses contrasting tones in Sonnet 29 to display the theme of jealousy wrecking a person’s life and how love can cure even the darkest of times through his use of hyperboles. The poem begins with a dark and depressed tone as he thinks that his life could not get any worse. He is in a deep state of depression and even states in line 8 that, “with what I most enjoy contented least,” (Shakespeare Line 8). This hyperbole emphasizes how terrible he sees his life as he exaggerates saying that even his favorite thing to do is the worst at that time. He continues on revealing the source of his depression is jealousy.…

    • 237 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the other hand, the mood of “Sonnet 30” makes the reader feel depressed and at some point loveless. Also, another difference between the sonnets is the tone of each. In “Sonnet 18”, a” lovely” and “temperate” (Line 2) tone is emitted yet, the tone of “Sonnet 30” is cheerless and painful as expressed in “even as I speak, for lack of love alone.”, “Yet many a man is making friends with death”. Moreover, the different respective themes of the sonnets show a great difference between William Shakespeare’s and Edna St. Vincent Millay’s perception of love. The theme of “Sonnet 18” is “the ephemeral nature of beauty.” This theme is expressed in “But thy eternal summer […] to time thou grow'st” (Line 9-12). Conversely, the theme of “Sonnet 30”, is, the importance of love for human beings. This theme is uttered in the axiom, “Love is not all: It is not meat nor drink.” The message of “Sonnet 18” is that poetry immortalizes beauty, expressed in “But thy eternal summer shall not fade” (Line 9), while the message of “Sonnet 30” is love is not essential for human beings yet, people lack of it mentioned in “Yet many a man is making friends with death” (Line 7). Concluding, “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare is written in a classical style due to…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    images the speaker uses gives the reader a sense of the mood he/ she is in,…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Apostrophe- the superscript sign used to indicate omission of a letter or letters from a word, possessive, case, or the plurals of numbers, letters, and abbreviations.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare expresses feelings using symbolism as a gate way to other figurative language aspects and literary devices, such as imagery, anaphora, alliteration, and metaphor, throughout Sonnet 30. After reading, the audience is left touched by his tone, and is able to share the feelings that William Shakespeare once…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The sonnet, being one of the most traditional and recognized forms of poetry, has been used and altered in many time periods by writers to convey different messages to the audience. The strict constraints of the form have often been used to parallel the subject in the poem. Many times, the first three quatrains introduce the subject and build on one another, showing progression in the poem. The final couplet brings closure to the poem by bringing the main ideas together. On other occasions, the couplet makes a statement of irony or refutes the main idea with a counter statement. It leaves the reader with a last impression of what the author is trying to say. Shakespeare's "Sonnet 65" is one example of Shakespearian sonnet form and it works with the constraints of this structure to question how one can escape the ravages of time on love and beauty. Shakespeare shows that even the objects in nature least vulnerable to time like brass, stone, and iron are mortal and eventually are destroyed. Of course the more fragile aspects of nature will die if these things do. The final couplet gives hope and provides a solution to the dilemma of time by having the author overcome mortality with his immortal writings.…

    • 1885 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The author shows us two very distant worlds coming together on ome stop. Both poems have been explicitely implified to demonstarte the differences and similarites. Sharon shows how two worlds are in reference to one another but in the end unite. At the beginning of the poem , two boys from different races are on opposite sides of a car.…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sonnet 79 Analysis

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sonnet 79 by Edmund Spenser is organized into three quatrains and a couplet. In this poem Spenser addresses his wife and tells how he does not pay close attention to outward appearances, but greatly admires a woman's internal beauty.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sonnet 18 Research Paper

    • 1156 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The sonnet has many themes that relate to the main reason the sonnet was written. Beauty is inferred to in the poem as the speakers love is compared to the summer which is also beautiful. The speaker says his the person he loves is everlastingly beautiful and how beauty fades away but the his loves beauty is always constant. The speaker starts to illustrate a picture in the readers mind that the love is a perfect being. This is another way he increases his glorification by showing how he can immortalize a great person in his writing. Another theme of this sonnet is immortality. "Shakespeare advocates seeking immortality through poetry rather than through procreation"(Sonnet 18). In the previous 17 sonnets the speaker is more focused on getting his love immortalized by procreation. In sonnet 18 his vision changes and he is more focused on immortalization by poetry.…

    • 1156 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays