In the first stanza, Shakespeare introduces the contrast between old age and youth through the first image of a tree towards the end of Autumn. Shakespeare uses the season of Autumn to represent the narrator’s current state of old age, approaching “winter” which is commonly used as a representation of death. In the second and third lines the narrator describes the branches of a tree saying, “when yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang upon those boughs which shake against the cold”. This harsh image reveals that the narrator knows he is getting old and has little, if anything, left of life as he is weak, cold, desolate, and desperate. The nearly naked branch stands to represent that all he has left is slowly slipping away.
First, in the opening quatrain, the speaker compares himself to a tree in winter, a tree whose “yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang / Upon those boughs which shake against the cold” (lines 2–3). Beginning this poem on a somber note, this complex metaphor goes beyond the traditional association between winter and old age to create the image of an elderly person whose thin arms and legs (boughs, or limbs) shake in the cold. The metaphor suggests that death is natural. Next, in the second quatrain, the speaker compares himself to the twilight of the day, that time of day just before dark, “after sunset fadeth in the west” (6). This metaphor suggests that the speaker is very near the end of his life because “by and by black night” (7) will take away all remaining light.
The last line is quite literal, he means after being alone all winter, when summer comes, he will come back to the world and potentially release his new music. Vernon’s lyrics are plentiful in imagery, mostly metaphors. The first two lines, 'Sold my cold knot A heavy stone' Says that Vernon left behind his heavy burden of depression. 'Sold my red horse for a venture home' Vernon sold his red car or other mode of transportation as he did not have enough the money to survive three months in his cabin. 'Colour the era, Film it, it's historical' Vernon feels that he will make musical history which may change the year
“BREATHLESS” EXPLICATION A Paper Presented to Mr Davenport Regis Jesuit High School In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course Reading and Writing Poetry by Brittany Mills January 31, 2014 The poem “Breathless” by Billy Collins is centered on the idea and motif of death. Oddly enough though, this is a dark or melancholy work, but instead the piece shows comfort in lying in an eternal slumber. The following is a line byline explication, pulling apart “Breathless” for further examination. The poem opens with “Some like the mountains, some like the seashore, Jean-Paul Belmondo says to the camera in the open scene”. The line about mountains and seashores is a reference to where ashes are often scattered.
Throughout the poem the speaker recalls the details of a relationship that is now broken and he expresses his great love for a woman with whom he had a passionate romance. This classical poem addresses to people who have lost-loved ones and to passionate lovers. Memory and Reminiscence “Tonight I Can Write” is a poem about memories of a lost love and the pain they can cause. Throughout the poem the speaker recalls the details of a relationship that is now broken. He continually juxtaposes images of the passion he felt for the woman he loved with the loneliness he experiences in the present.
Sonnet 73 - "That time of year thou mayst in me behold" What's he saying? "That time of year thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang" You may see in me the autumn of my life, like the time when yellow leaves, or no leaves, or a few leaves still hang "Upon those boughs which shake against the cold / Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang." (The leaves hang on) branches, which shiver in anticipation of the cold; the branches are like empty, ruined church choir pews, and sweet birds used to sing on the branches. "In me thou seest the twilight of such day / As after sunset fadeth in the west," You see in me the twilight of my life, like when the sunset has faded to darkness in the west, "Which by and by black night doth take away / Death's second self, that seals up all in rest." Which before long is replaced by the black night, Death's second self, which covers everything in a deathly sleep.
“I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” The poem “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” by Emily Dickinson, is about the death of the speaker, who tells us about the last moments of life. In the poem, the author distinguishes two different perspectives of death which are the traditional beliefs and the rituals of death. Dickinson utilizes these two perspectives of death, the traditional beliefs and rituals of death, to exaggerate the meaning of death and immorality, further making the speaker talk in a sarcastic tone by comparing them to the fly buzzing. In the beginning of the poem, the first stanza, the speaker is in on the eve of death, which implies that the speaker’s sense through the “fly buzz,” the speaker shows an ironical perspective about traditional ideas about death. The “stillness” in the second line, it is not just calm, but so calm that anxiety is deeply inhered.
'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night' is a villanelle written in the 1950s by poet Dylan Thomas to address his dying father, pleading him to resist fervently the coming of death and “not go gentle into that good night”. “That good night” in line 1 is similarly paraphrased at the end of line 2 as the “close of day”, and again at the end of line 3 as “the dying of the light”, establishing the metaphorical comparison of “night” to death early on in the poem, and extending it to include “day” and “light” as the opposite shortly after. Thomas continues to reinforce this metaphor using rich imagery and figurative language throughout the poem. For example, in stanza four, he creates the imagery of the “wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight”. These men who captured the “sun in flight”, here representing the beauty of life, discover only too late that it was slowly disappearing again into the darkness.
“We choose metaphors in order to communicate what we think or how we feel about something.” In ‘Sonnet 73’, Shakespeare appears to be telling his lover how he feels about his anxieties and his advanced age. Throughout the poem, Shakespeare has used three different metaphors in order to convey the effects of old age. The poem itself follows these metaphors, from the yellow leaves of the first quatrain, to the smouldering ashes of the last, and from this, we see the slow and gradual movement from aging to death, as each metaphor succeeds the last. One way in which Shakespeare uses metaphor is to tell his lover that he must be regarded in the period of his life which corresponds to late autumn. He compares his withering body to iconic autumnal changes, such as the “yellow leaves”.
The poem “At Night” has an overall feeling of sadness turning into arrogant anger. The tone of the poem suggests that the narrator loses his sadness which is stated in the quote “The blue of my eyes is extinguished in this night,”. The blue eyes are a symbol of sadness, which is what blue usually means or symbolizes (for example, blues music, etc.). The narrator also says how his heart is ‘read’ and ‘gold’. The color red usually means anger and gold suggests a majestic feeling.