Sonnet Part 2, By William Shakespeare's Use Of Hyperbole

Decent Essays
“Poetry is the fiery index to the genius of the age” Babette Deutsch once proclaimed. Poetry has stayed similar though much of history about the concept of aging. Through metaphors, personifications and rhymes. Poetry has gone about a colourful approach to aging much like an abstract painting. In “Sonnet #2”, by William Shakespeare, the individual narrating is recalling his good looks in his youth and warns his audience to have children in order to have the once good looks not go to waste. The audience is anyone who is married and aging whom the individual is trying to convince them of avoiding the conflict of their beauty going to waste. This poem, about aging, shows beyond doubt that if someone does not have children, their comeliness will …show more content…
Shakespeare, like any other poet, strives to coat his figurative language in eloquence. Initially, Shakespeare starts his poem with a hyperbole when the narrator says, “When forty winters shall besiege thy brow” (Shakespeare 1). Which is hyperbole since forty winter’s did not besiege or attack the speaker of the poem. The use of besiege is a clear exaggeration. This use of a hyperbole connects to the theme because it’s can be deduced the speaker 's skin in no longer supple and youthful. In addition to this example, Shakespeare compares the narrator 's memory of his past beauty to a tattered weed. “The youth’s proud livery, so gazed on now, Will be a tatter’d weed, of small worth held” (Shakespeare 3-4) This is a metaphor meaning just like how weeds are insignificant, his memories of his youth are the same way. This is aimed to make the reader feel selfish that are holding on to memories that don’t mean a thing. With a comparison to a weed, individuals will start opening their eyes. Past beauty is not important since it’s just a foggy memory that they will lose. To be brief, symbolism is scarce in this poem. In particular, a use of symbolism in this poem is the phrase “forty winters” (Shakespeare 1). Winters, is a symbolism for years. By that dissection of the text, the readers know forty winters is forty years. Then, by common sense, the individual narrating is Forty years old when reading this. This …show more content…
In “Sonnet #2”, Shakespeare forms his poem in one stanza, with a couplet after it. Which is a tad different than a normal sonnet which is usually one stanza. “Sonnet #2” is a lyric poem, specifically a sonnet. As you can see, their is no title so it’s has a number after it. Further analyzation of them poem reveals that it has rhyme scheme of internal rhymes in every other line. In other words, the structure is sturdy. As a final point all analyzation done to this poem connects to the theme of “If one does not have children, they will waste their beauty” The narrator 's preferable audience is someone about to marry, probably young in age. An individual can only speculate how the narrator is related or how his warning first became apparent to him. These questions are still not answered as the reader will need to answer the speaker’s question first, “Is the reader going to selfish and hide their beauty?”. One would hope not after Shakespeare’s convincing writing in “Sonnet

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