Comparative Essay on Shakespeare's Sonnet 12 and Seamus Heaney's Blackberry-Picking
Endeavor to confront Time's scythe or surrender to fatalism?
Compare and Contrast Shakespeare's Sonnet 12 and Seamus Heaney's Blackberry-Picking
By Sally, Kuok Si Nok, School of Translation and Interpreting, Beijing Language and Cultural University
Human in all ages races through lives in an everlasting fight against time. Men's struggle against nature has been a timeless theme in the literary world. From the early 17th century Sonnet 12, Shakespeare's "When I do count the clock that tells the time", to Seamus Heaney's "Blackberry-picking", written in late 20th century, both poems addresses the effect of "Time's scythe" on the transience decayed in nature as a natural cycle of life; however, while Shakespeare adopts a positive attitude in suggesting "procreation to defeat time" as a temporary solution, Heaney reflects on the inevasible disappointment at the interference of natural law.
To address the theme of natural cycle, Shakespeare employs elaborated diction and juxtaposes contrasting ideas to measure the passage of time, nature and youth through life: In line 1 and 2, "brave day sunk in hideous night" reflects the daily passage of time, line 3 and 4 link nature to humankind, by first evokes a flower's wilting stage to the image of black hair naturally aging an turning grey, line 5 to 7 discuss the progression of season from "canopy" to "barren of leave", to "white and bristly beard", indicating snow and winter. Since Heaney metaphorizes old man as "white beard" on the bier, it can be suggested that he also compares young maid to "violet prime" and young man to "lofty tree". Thus, the implicit use of figurative language hints the universal law of nature on all creatures - throughout "Sonnet 12" - a number which symbolizes hour and month (passage of time).
With regard to Heaney's techniques of expression, he visualizes the decaying process of blackberry by reminiscing a childhood activity in rural Northern Ireland. In the poem, the specific temporal
Compare and Contrast Shakespeare's Sonnet 12 and Seamus Heaney's Blackberry-Picking
By Sally, Kuok Si Nok, School of Translation and Interpreting, Beijing Language and Cultural University
Human in all ages races through lives in an everlasting fight against time. Men's struggle against nature has been a timeless theme in the literary world. From the early 17th century Sonnet 12, Shakespeare's "When I do count the clock that tells the time", to Seamus Heaney's "Blackberry-picking", written in late 20th century, both poems addresses the effect of "Time's scythe" on the transience decayed in nature as a natural cycle of life; however, while Shakespeare adopts a positive attitude in suggesting "procreation to defeat time" as a temporary solution, Heaney reflects on the inevasible disappointment at the interference of natural law.
To address the theme of natural cycle, Shakespeare employs elaborated diction and juxtaposes contrasting ideas to measure the passage of time, nature and youth through life: In line 1 and 2, "brave day sunk in hideous night" reflects the daily passage of time, line 3 and 4 link nature to humankind, by first evokes a flower's wilting stage to the image of black hair naturally aging an turning grey, line 5 to 7 discuss the progression of season from "canopy" to "barren of leave", to "white and bristly beard", indicating snow and winter. Since Heaney metaphorizes old man as "white beard" on the bier, it can be suggested that he also compares young maid to "violet prime" and young man to "lofty tree". Thus, the implicit use of figurative language hints the universal law of nature on all creatures - throughout "Sonnet 12" - a number which symbolizes hour and month (passage of time).
With regard to Heaney's techniques of expression, he visualizes the decaying process of blackberry by reminiscing a childhood activity in rural Northern Ireland. In the poem, the specific temporal