Shakespeare uses dreary diction, the personification of Death, and a break in the meter to present King Richard II’s epiphany about commonness of kings. In the beginning lines of Richard II’s monologue, Shakespeare integrates nouns such as “graves”, “executors”, and “deposed bodies” to create an introspective tone that centers around the concept of death. Shakespeare’s deliberate word choice emphasizes the importance of Richard II’s newfound understanding of death’s universality in his overall realizations about his place in the world. A shift in diction arises once Richard II begins to share stories about the “death of kings”. The second portion of the poem contains verbs that directly related to death such as “deposed”, “slain”, “poison’d”,
