Sarat Ganapathiraju

11-F 01/02/10

Sonnet 73 Analysis

In the poem "Sonnet #73" by William Shakespeare, the topic of death is discussed very

much which might be unsuitable for all ages. Shakespeare talks about life coming to an end and

the capability of the human beings to deal with the fact that all the people that we love,

including those around us that we don’t, must die some day. Yet the human being loves with

everything in his body because tomorrow is never guaranteed. Shakespeare conveys these feelings

by the use of Imagery, Rhyme, and Metaphors.

The poet paints a picture in each quatrain of the sonnet conveying his concern of the

future roughness of old age. He does this by illustrating that life is limited by time. The poet

indicates his feeling that he has not long to live through the imagery of the wintry bough,

twilight's afterglow, and a fire's dying embers. All the images in this sonnet suggest impending

death. In the first quatrain, the poet compares himself to autumn leaves, but he is unable to

pinpoint their exact number, just as he cannot determine how close he is to death: "When

yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang / upon those boughs which shake against the cold."

The effect of this particular poetic device would be to show the reader to understand the value

of life and love.

Sonnet 73 has a formal structure and is written in the Shakespearean or English sonnet style.

The sonnet consists of three stanzas of 4 lines which mean three quatrains with each line
showing the pattern of an iambic pentameter, which follows a particular rhyme scheme or

pattern, which was ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Through the use of rhyming the poem gets through

the central theme of the poem which is shown in the last rhyming couplet, which is “This thou

perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere

long” informs the reader that you will love the old man all the more because you know that he

is near death.

Metaphors are a way of conveying Shakespeare’s message throughout this poem which

relates back to the central theme of death and how death is inevitable. He compares himself to

the tree by saying 'That time of year thou mayst in me behold when yellow leaves, or none, or

few, do hang upon those boughs which shake against the cold". Shakespeare compares his

aging self to the aging tree. Just as the tree is losing its' leaves, Shakespeare could be losing his

hair. Lastly, the final metaphor is when Shakespeare is comparing himself to the fire and states,

"In me thou seest the glowing of such fire that on the ashes of his youth lie, as the deathbed

whereon it must expire, consumed with that which it was nourished by" as the fire is dying so is

Shakespeare. The effect of this poetic device is to show how the poet is feeling during the

writing stages of the poem.

In conclusion, the poem "Sonnet #73" by William Shakespeare stands out as a very

symbolic and metaphoric poem to what the poet is going through. The three different types of

poetic devices used in this poem would be Imagery, Rhyme, and Metaphors, which all refer

back to the original theme that runs throughout the poem with is death and how death is

inevitable or cannot be stopped. The life connection to this poem would most likely be that not

waste time as you grow old but rather enjoy everything while you can.
 Forever By Drake

Last name Ever, first name Greatest

Like a sprained ankle, boy, I ain’t nothin’ to play with

Started off local, but thanks to all the haters

I know G4 pilots on a first-name basis

In your city faded off the brown, Nino

She insists she got more class, we know

Swimming in the money, come and find me, Nemo

If I was at the club you know I balled, chemo

Dropped a mixtape, that shit sounded like an album

Whoda thought a country-wide tour be the outcome

Labels want my name beside an X like Malcolm

Every got a deal, I did it without one

Yeah, I’m about my business

Killin’ all these rappers, you would swear I had a hitlist

Everyone who doubted me is askin’ for forgiveness

If you ain’t been a part of it, at least you got to witness

 Forever By Drake Analysis

In the song Forever by Drake, the topic that surrounds this song is the theme of inspiration and

how you can make your destiny. Drake talks about his journey throughout the time he set to becoming a

lyricist and rapper, all the highs and lows. The tone that he shows in this song is something that says that

finally he has made it bigger than ever and no one can stop him now, which shows that he has been put

down too much and been brushed off by saying that he’s just any other rapper.

The content that runs through this song was previously explained in the introductory paragraph

the song is about how Drake wants to be the greatest there is out there in the Rap/Hip-Hop industry and

try to take out the biggies. The meaning of this poem would be also that what kinds of things happen

when you get a hit song under your belt, so he explains “Whoda thought a country-wide tour be the

outcome”, which means that when he got a hit song he went on a country wide tour because no one

expected him to make it that big. The voice in the song also sounds very unique and inspirational, as he

is posing as an example to show that anyone who has good lyrics can make it big and have good future

in the industry.

The Form that this lyric is written is that it has only 4 lines of rhyme which is shown during “In

your city faded off the brown, Nino” , “She insists she got more class, we know” , “Swimming in the

money, come and find me, Nemo” , and “If I was at the club you know I balled, chemo”. These four lines

also have a certain rhythm to them during song that whenever the beat or rhythm comes in the song

the lines all start to rhyme. This shows that the rapper is trying to emphasize that part of the song to

make the song the flow better and make it easier to understand and remember. The rhythm creates an

environment of seriousness because of the serious topic Drake is rapping about which how to achieve

something that no one has ever had faith in you.

 The Style chosen in the lyric is written shows that the song writer wanted to create a

surrounding of seriousness and triumph. Words like “greatest” and “ever” show that his intention of

taking over the industry is clear and he wants everyone to back off when he says “If you ain’t been a

part of it, at least you got to witness.” There are also some similes like when Drake raps “Labels want my

name beside an X like Malcolm”, this shows how people want to have him onto a recording label and

want to sign next to the X like Malcolm X. Another simile would be “Like a sprained ankle, boy, I ain’t

nothin’ to play with” this shows that when you get a sprained ankle you cant play with it, so he uses that

to show link between rapper saying that you don’t want to challenge because I will destroy you. There is

also a line of imagery I found in the lyric which says, “Swimming in the money, come and find me,

Nemo” this quote cements a mental image in your head of a person swimming in money and tells us

that he is swimming like Nemo, where he is making reference to the movie Finding Nemo. In the movie

the main character gets lost somewhere in the ocean and the whole story is about how he gets found

again.

The music that this song holds is a couple of deep bass drums, a couple of strings, a synthesizer,

a siren, a handful of piano keys. These instruments are used very cleverly to keep the tempo up from not

becoming too slow or not making the song lose its focus on the song and get their message across. The

sounds are used in a loop after the first chorus and verse, this shows that its used that for every rapper

and there are in total 4 rappers, and I only chose Drake’s part because his verse is the best and gets

really good word choice and meaningful lyrics to get you inspired and fired up.