Пример полного анализа стихотворений

The sonnet I want to analyze is Shakespeare’s 66 sonnet. William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet. Published in 1609, the Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals. Critics praise the Sonnets as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time.

This very sonnet 66 is distinguished by poet’s depiction of the ever-present evil of the world. Moreover, the essence of this sonnet is defined by its number. In Shakespeare's time numerical symbolism attached great importance, and the number 66 was ominous. I can say that this sonnet is the central in the sonnet cycle and that the entire Shakespearean sonnet cycle is this confrontation of the sonnet 66: Love – is the only thing that can be opposed to the worldwide evil. The speaker criticizes society, he is tired of all injustices that he faces, and he enumerates them, he wants to die, but can’t because he don’t want to leave his beloved alone. I’d like present my translation of the sonnet:

Устав от всего этого, я зову умиротворяющую смерть,

как видеть достоинство в тех, кто родился нищим,

и жалкое ничтожество, наряженное в роскошь,

и чистейшую веру, от которой отреклись несчастно,

и позолоченные почести, позорно отданные не тем,

и девственную добродетель, которую развращают,

и истинное совершенство, неправомерно опозоренное,

и силу, которую власть сделало немощной,

и искусство, которому власть связала язык,

и глупость, с ученым видом контролирующее знание,

и простую честность, которую прозвали глупостью,

и плененное добро у главенствующего зла,

Устав от всего этого, я бы ушел,

Но умерев, я оставлю свою любовь в одиночестве.

The form of sonnet 66 is typical for Shakespearian sonnets, it is constructed from three quatrains and a final couplet composed in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg with general feminine rhyme, for instance “jollity”, “forsworn”, “authority”, etc. The rhyme of the words “cry” and “jollity” is called eye rhyme, when the spelling looks alike but pronunciation is different. Usually, the beginning of the third quatrain marks the volta ("turn"), or the line in which the mood of the poem shifts, this turning point divides the poem into two parts, but in this very poem the last line is considered to be the turn. The first and the thirteen lines are modified into trochaic pentameter, because of the shift of the accent of the word “tired”, it makes these lines emphasized and attracts the readers’ attention, and they contain one of the key ideas of the poem, the idea of dying, which is emphasized by the trochaic meter. Besides, this sonnet consists of two sentences - one is contained in 12 lines, the other - in the last couplet. The first 12 lines are like rising actions of the sonnet, lines 3 through 12 all follow the same structure and add to the continuity of the poem, Shakespeare depicts what irritates him and makes him feel sorry, the climax is seen in the thirteen line, when the poet repeats the idea of the death, but then he understands that his beloved will be alone without him, and this is the resolution, I suppose.

The speaker is the poet himself, I think so because of use of the pronoun “I”, that it was Shakespeare who tired of social conditions that he saw, besides, the line devoted to art is a hint that the speaker is a poet. The speaker expresses negative attitude to the current situation, and the only thing he can do is to die, anyhow it is not the appropriate outcome. As I’ve said the poet uses iambic pentameter, which is considered to be a light and gentle meter, but it doesn’t give optimistic tone to the poem, the tone is pessimistic and serious because of the social theme that was raised, and I believe that the meter makes the poem energetic and dynamic. The speeding tempo prevents the reader from becoming bored with the poem. The mood of Sonnet 66 does not change until the last line, when the speaker declares that the only thing keeping him alive is his lover. This stresses the fact that his lover is helping him to survive.

Speaking about the style, Shakespeare’s one is expressive, vivid and colorful, it is marked by the use of various stylistic devices, as epithets, metonymy, euphemism, oxymoron and musical devices.

The poem begins "Tired with all these", causing the reader to wonder what "these" stands for, a question Shakespeare spends the next eleven lines answering. These answering lines, however, beg more questions. Until line 8, victims appear without victimizers leading the reader to ask who acts. Even when the victimizers appear, vagueness remains.

The epithets “restful”, “gilted”, “captive” are used to characterize the words they stand with and give an additive feature to the following words “death”, “honour”, “good”. Usually, when we speak about death it has a negative connotation, but the epithet “restful” makes it even saving. The epithet “gilted” to the word honour, makes the honour being not so valuable, the honour is artificial. As for captive good, I consider that the epithet emphasizes the fact that good people really suffered from injustice.

Euphemism were widely used by poets of Shakespeare’s times, to soften the meaning that the speaker wants to die, the poet uses euphemism, instead of simple “I want to die” the combination of words “call for restful death” is used. Again the poet calls his beloved as “my love”, which makes it sound nice and poetic.

For intensifying the feature of folly being disguised by cleverness, in the line 10 the words “folly” and “doctor-like” are marked by oxymoron, which gives contrast to this line and attracts the reader’s attention. Another contrast or antithesis is used in the poem, for example “strength” is contrasted to “disabled”, “virtue” being “strumpeted”, “good” to “ill”, antithesis emphasizes the appalling situation made by the authority and rich people, and shows that this unfair power could make with good and guiltless people, and nothing could be done, the poet could not solve the problems.

As we noticed, Shakespeare speaks about generalities as “maiden virtue”, “captive good”, “captain ill”, “simple truth”, but we know they stand for people, because we see the connection between people and features of character, relating to them, the poet uses metonymy here, for instance “virtue” is the feature of good and innocent people, “good” again means good people and “ill” stand for evil ones.

The anaphora of “and” in the lines 3 to 12 gives dynamics to the poem, it’s like enumeration of the faults of society, and they are emphasized by these repetition.

In order to strengthen the picture of unhealthy social situation, that is difficult to struggle with, hard to cope with, Shakespeare uses alliteration of sound “p”, “f”, “r”, “t”, “s” as "and purest faith unhappily forsworn”, “right - wrongfully disgraced”, “strength - sway disabled”, the line “and art made tongue - tied by authority” hard even to pronounce, this musical device emphasizes the poet’s indignation. The alliteration of the sound “l” in the last line “I leave my love alone” gives melody to it and we hear the change of the tone, when the speaker speaks about of what he tired, the repeated sounds hard to pronounce, meanwhile when the theme is his beloved one, the line is easy to read and it gives some gentleness to the last line, because it is devoted to the person who helps him to continue his life.

The poet’s intense emotions are portrayed by the change of past participle to present in the last two lines, as for past participle, it shows that the speaker can’t do nothing, he couldn’t change the current situation, only that he can do is to die, and this grammatical change depicts the depth of the poet’s horror and feelings of helplessness.

I want to mention that Shakespeare end-stops every line with a comma, period, or colon. This creates choppiness, it gives more power to each line and each one stands on its own and draws the readers’ attention.

As for the imagery, it plays an important role in the poem, most of the images are visual, they convey concrete mental impression, and the reader can see what was happening in the social sphere, as injustice, strict censorship, moral decay of the society. As the lines “And gilded honour shamefully misplaced, And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted” we really see that wealth and honor undeservedly were given to people, who did not do any good for this, we can imagine innocent girls who were to forget their virtue in order to earn money, these images are very striking and display the social injustices in our mind.

As we see. Shakespeare’s sonnet is about social corruption and our sinful behavior as members of human society. It is sharply and unambiguously a “social criticism” delivered with passion of moral indignation. The sonnet is like an appeal to cease social degradation, the speaker as a sensitive person can’t stand it anymore, but love keeps him alive. May be the poet wants to say that love can save us from this public ruin. In contrast to the general tone of the whole cycle that love for the poet turned to be suffering, as we know, this sonnet reveals the fact that his beloved gives to him powers to live and he doesn’t want to leave him or her alone.

To sum it up, I would like to say that I liked reading this poem, with the help of the stylistic devices Shakespeare used, I could feel and visualize social injustice presented in the poem, it was a pleasure to analyze it for it’s being a traditionally written in the sonnet manner and preserved the structure of Shakespearian sonnet. Precisely, I would recommend reading Sonnet 66 to my peers.

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,

As, to behold desert a beggar born,

And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,

And purest faith unhappily forsworn,

And guilded honour shamefully misplaced,

And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,

And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,

And strength by limping sway disabled,

And art made tongue-tied by authority,

And folly doctor-like controlling skill,

And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,

And captive good attending captain ill:

Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,

Save that, to die, I leave my love alone