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.
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Judeo-Christian God, William Shakespeare¡¯s, Philip Sidney, , Webster Dictionary, Garden Eden, Jesus Christ, Spenserian English/Shakespearean, idea death, life death, body soul, initial caesura, home heaven, ¡°that face¡±, sonnet speaker, pilgrimage¡¯s mile¡±, speaker believes, ¡°ever-waking part¡±,
Approximate Word count = 1711
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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