Shakespeare's Literary Mechanisms

             To the speaker of this sonnet, life is merely a journey towards the inevitable end, which is death. In just fourteen lines, the speaker is able to debate a difficult issue, reach a conclusion, and pour much more meaning into his words than what it seems. Because of the speaker¡¯s choice of specific literary mechanisms, such as alliteration, enjambment and caesura, diction, and imagery it is evident that he is fighting an internal battle between his affinity towards life and his affinity towards death. He fears death and the idea of the control of a supreme being, but at the same time he wishes to be free from the constraints of a foreign life and return to his home in heaven.
             All aspects of the literary techniques in this sonnet suggest some type of internal conflict between the speaker and his interlocutor. The question immediately arises then, who is the interlocutor? To whom is the speaker addressing his sonnet? Obviously it is an internal dialogue that the speaker is rehearsing, and therefore the interlocutor is himself. Although there is some hint to an interlocutor other than the speaker in the last couplet where it says ¡°impute me,¡± the bulk of the poem functions as an interior monologue within the speaker. Not only is the choice of interlocutor significantly different from the traditional sonnet form, where it is usually a yearned for lover, but the actual form of this sonnet is also ambiguous.
             The sonnet, which is iambic pentameter, can be placed somewhere in between the Italian/Petrarchan model and the Spenserian or English/Shakespearean model. Like Sir Philip Sidney, this speaker modifies the Italian/Petrarchan model to express his English nationality. The first octave is of the Italian form, following the pattern of ¡°abba, abba,¡± but the sonnet then ends with a quatrain and couplet, using the English form of ¡°cdcd, ee.¡± This particular sonnet raises a question in ...

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Shakespeare's Literary Mechanisms. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 11:12, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/82145.html