LIVING TO DIE :: essays research papers

Living to handLove is the emblem of eternity it confounds all in all notion of time effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end. Germaine De StaelIn William Shakespeares sonnet 73 That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold, the main foundation of an approaching and inevitable death is applied. Moreover, this theme is being explained to a love one in rove for her to embrace and cherish her love for him epoch he still breathes. Beginning with the head start quatrain, Shakespeare compares his age to that of autumn which stands for his procession of years. Furthermore, in the second quatrain, Shakespeare elaborately compares his ageing to a sunset, which is right onward night, or in Shakespeares case, death. In the final quatrain Shakespeare further compares his demeanor to the life of a fire, which burns bright at the beginning unless eventually dies out and turns to ashes. The point of the final couplet is to have the indorser realize that the entire sonnet is writ ten to his lover in order to symbolize the way that Shakespeare feels that she views him in natural terms. Furthermore it shows the undying temper of love present between them, which cannot die along with his death. In the first quatrain, Shakespeare metaphorically compares himself to a tree in the season of degenerate. The season of fall is symbolic because it represents a transition in time, right after derail and summer when life is full of energy, and right before winter when everything is utter and ceased to be. He goes on to say That time of year thou mayst in me behold when yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang upon those boughs which plump up against the cold"(579). Shakespeare uses conceit to elaborately compare his furtherance of age to the aging tree in the fall. Just as the tree is helpless and unclothed to the elements, Shakespeare is naked and helpless in the hands of time. Furthermore, Shakespeare portrays the fact that his death is inevitable. In the seco nd quatrain, Shakespeare seems to say death comes like night, dark and quiet, like a thief, stealing when we sleep. Moreover, the speaker compares his age to the late twilight, "As after sunset fadeth in the west," and the remaining light is slowly extinguished into the darkness. Meaning, death go out come, without question. The sun setting could also be regarded as the sun passing play to sleep, which plays on the last line of the quatrain, "Deaths second self, which seals upon rest.