Sonnet 71
William Shakespeare sonnets are easily identified by the diversity of tones that he uses to express the speakers emotions to an audience, such is case of Sonnet 71 that contains lines that have totally different meanings among each other.
According to the first 4 lines of this Sonnet it can inferred that what the speaker is trying to express to the audience is not to grieve for him when dies.
“No Longer mourn for me when I am dead,
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell;” (1,4)
In this lines the speaker, is playing with the audience, he is using a subtle but at the same time ironic tone, telling the spectator ‘do not grieve for me but at the same time let the whole world know that I’m dead’ which can be interpreted as him wanting no attention from the audience but in the other hand he’s asking for the worlds attention in a very contradictory way.
From lines 5 to 8 the speaker is using a desolate, romantic tone to express the audience his love and his pain.
“Nay if you read this line, remember not,
The hand that writ it, for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.” (5,8)
What he is trying to say in these lines is that he loves the audience so much that he’d much rather being forgotten than remembered if thinking about him makes the reader upset.
From lines 12 to 14 the speaker makes use of a sarcastic tone starting by the fact that he called the world “vile” in line 4 and he calls the world “wise” in line 13.
“But let your love even with my life decay.
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.” (12,14)
It can be inferred that the author is being ironic and sarcastic just by the fact that he’s telling the audience not to let the wise world mock her, meaning not to let the malicious world to make fun of her.
The diversity of tones
According to the first 4 lines of this Sonnet it can inferred that what the speaker is trying to express to the audience is not to grieve for him when dies.
“No Longer mourn for me when I am dead,
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell;” (1,4)
In this lines the speaker, is playing with the audience, he is using a subtle but at the same time ironic tone, telling the spectator ‘do not grieve for me but at the same time let the whole world know that I’m dead’ which can be interpreted as him wanting no attention from the audience but in the other hand he’s asking for the worlds attention in a very contradictory way.
From lines 5 to 8 the speaker is using a desolate, romantic tone to express the audience his love and his pain.
“Nay if you read this line, remember not,
The hand that writ it, for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.” (5,8)
What he is trying to say in these lines is that he loves the audience so much that he’d much rather being forgotten than remembered if thinking about him makes the reader upset.
From lines 12 to 14 the speaker makes use of a sarcastic tone starting by the fact that he called the world “vile” in line 4 and he calls the world “wise” in line 13.
“But let your love even with my life decay.
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.” (12,14)
It can be inferred that the author is being ironic and sarcastic just by the fact that he’s telling the audience not to let the wise world mock her, meaning not to let the malicious world to make fun of her.
The diversity of tones