Acceptance of Loss of Time in Sonnet 73 and When I have Fears

But, we should first and foremost put this sonnet back in its context. We can easily presume that it is autobiographic, thus that Keats reveals us his own worries. In 1818, he is aware that he has short time left to live due to the fatal illness

Brenda Zavala March 16th, 2015 Character Analysis project: Part 2 Commonplace Journal Entry one Hamlet His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!

By characterizing the aftereffects of death as dreams, Hamlet creates a metaphor and implies that we all wish to experience that final sleep, but it is the uncertainty of what may come that prevents us from doing so of our own accord. Each night, we close our eyes and take a gamble; our sleep may consist of a pleasant fantasy, a horrible nightmare, or nothing at all. Just as we prepare ourselves for sleep each night, unsure if our impending visions will be those of horror or delight, we ready ourselves for death. However, we voluntarily succumb to sleep with the promise of reawakening, but it is the finality of death that prohibits us from being as willing

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (“Sonnet 18”) is one of Shakespeare’s most famous poems. It is the model English, or Shakespearean sonnet: it contains three quatrains and a finishing couplet.. The poem follows the traditional English sonnet form by having the octet introduce an idea or set up the poem, and the sestet beginning with a volta, or turn in perspective. In the octet of Sonnet 18, Shakespeare poses the question “Shall I compare the to a summer’s day” and basically begins to describe all the bad qualities of summer. He says it’s too windy, too short, too hot, and too cloudy. Eventually fall is going to come and take away all the beauty because of the changes nature brings. In the sestet, however, his tone changes as he begins to talk about his beloved’s “eternal summer” (Shakespeare line 9). This is where the turn takes place in the poem. Unlike the summer, their beauty will never fade. Not even death can stop their beauty for, according to Shakespeare, as long as people can read this poem, his lover’s beauty will continue to live. Shakespeare believes that his art is more powerful than any season and that in it beauty can be permanent.

As people near the time of their deaths, they begin to reflect upon the history and events of their own lives. Both John Keats’ “When I have Fears” and Henry Longfellow’s “Mezzo Cammin” reflect upon the speakers’ fears and thoughts of death. However, the conclusions between these two poems end quite differently. Although both reflect upon Death’s grasp, Keats’ displays an appreciation and subtle satisfaction with the wonders of life, while Longfellow morbidly mourns his past inactions and fears what events the future may bring.

Throughout ‘At Mornington’, Harwood uses descriptions, “night fell”, and similes, “the piece of this day will shine like light” when referring to the power of memory. During ‘The Violets’, Harwood uses imagery such as “ambiguous light” and metaphors such as “unreturning light” and “blurring darkness” to portray time’s ability to pass, and the way that you cannot regain time that is lost. During ‘The Violets’, Harwood also uses the metaphor of the “melting west” to represent a closing day, capturing the vivid colours of the natural phenomenon through the use of evocative imagery. Indeed, the second poem of the diptych of ‘Father and Child’ is ‘Nightfall’. These references to darkness, light and the closing of days can all be seen as symbolic of life, death and the transience of time, as when one day ends and night falls, the transience of that moment will be held in one’s memory regardless of the moment never being able to be relived.

While both Keats and Longfellow often reflect on their own unfulfilled dreams and impending deaths, the poems however contrast on their own dispositions towards death and the future. Here, Keats expresses a fear of not having enough time to accomplish all that he believes he is capable of doing, but as he recognizes the enormity of the world and his own limitations of life, he realizes that his own mortal goals are meaningless in the long run of things. On the other hand, Longfellow speaks of a regret towards his inaction for allowing time to slip away from him in his past and is at a crossroads for the ominous future that looms ahead of him. Through the use of light and dark imagery, and personification, Keats and Longfellow similarly yet also differently, reflect on their own ideas for death and the futures that lay ahead of them.

Human beings revolve around time and base their lives off of it. Although a person has the capability to use time as little or a lot to plan out their life, time’s presence can have a different impact for everyone. In sonnet “73” when talking about someone coming to the end of their life Shakespeare says, “In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire that on the ashes of his youth doth die”

Keats was very aware of his own mortality and his poetry reflected the intensity and the passion of a man who didn't have very long to live. His poetry remains some of the densest prose ever penned because, like his brief existence, he had to condense so much life into so little space. The thought of impending death would be enough to make anyone fall into hopeless despair but Keats's incredible talents and commitment to live in the moment perhaps allowed him to three lifetimes.

Shakespeare uses lines five through eight of the sonnet to describe the closing of a day, and the onset of night:

       The theme, in Sonnet 73, is the poet's aging. Each quatrain develops an image of lateness, of approaching extinction - of a season, of a day, and of a fire, but they also apply to a life (Abrams et al. 867). The poet compares his age to three images through the quatrains: autumn, the dying of the year (first quatrain); the dying of the fire (third quatrain). The first line draws a picture of himself, "in me," and in a certain time, "That time of year," of his life (surely, he is old now). We can see that the

In the first quatrain, the speaker contrasts his age is like a "time of year,": late autumn, when the "yellow leaves" have almost completely fallen from the trees and the boughs "shake against the cold." Those metaphors clearly indicate that winter, which usually symbolizes the loneliness and desolation, is coming. Here the reader would easily observe the similarity between the season and the speaker's age. Since winter is usually

as a part of the season which is known as spring; it can be assumed he means all life and all things are subject to the ravages of time. Mortality is all around us and with it the stages of all life and time pass. In terms of the opening lines, thought, youth and beauty are fleeting indeed.

The theme of new beginnings and the harness of the past in another natural setting is discussed again in the second stanza, but now with a focus on time. The visual image presented my the passage as the sun hesitating and losing its direction show allow the reader to observe the symbolism of the sun. The sun universally represents time, the rise and set of sun symbolizing the beginning and ending of each day, days leading into months, years, and lifetimes. The rise of the sun is a new beginning, but it "seems to hesitate," and "lose its/ incandescent aim." The new beginning brought on by the rising of the sun was held back and lost "in that second." Hope and the fresh start were halted by the sun, who was not ready to let time pass and continue. The passage concludes with an affirmation of the symbolism, that "the past is brighter yet" than the sun who could not pull the new start cleanly into the future.

The next two lines, “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, / But bears it out even to the edge of doom” is an allusion to love standing its ground even in the wake of Doomsday. This quatrain effectively illustrates love as a thing that endures all hardship; reinforcing the extended metaphor of the previous quatrain.