- Apr 2016
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www.opensourceshakespeare.org www.opensourceshakespeare.org
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Resembling strong youth in his middle age, yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,
I don't understand why people think that the sun looks its best when it is highest in the sky. Same with people. Not everyone is at their best when they are young adults. Some people might be prettier or handsome when they are older.
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Lo! in the orient when the gracious light Lifts up his burning head, each under eye
Personification: saying that the 'gracious light' can lift up its head is giving the sun the qualities of a person. The sun does not have a head and can not lift it up.
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So thou, thyself out-going in thy noon, Unlook'd on diest, unless thou get a son.
I don't agree with the fact that people must have families before they start to get older and weaker. Just because you are better when you are younger does not mean that you cant do anything when you get older.
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So thou, thyself out-going in thy noon, Unlook'd on diest, unless thou get a son.
VOLTA: As a person reads this poem, they would think that it is about the sun as it makes its journey through the day. The sun looks like a strong young man when it is at its highest point in the sky. And as it falls back towards the ground, the sun is more like an old man who has aged and gotten weaker. But these last two lines changes the whole thing. At the end it is saying that a person has "settle down" and have a family when they are at their highest point in the sky, which is noon. If they don't then they loose there chance at having kids because everything goes down hill after someone reaches their high pint.
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Unlook'd on diest, unless thou get a son.
Unstressed: Un of unlook'd, on, est from diest, less from unless, get, and son. Stressed: look'd of unlook'd, di from diest, un from unless, thou, and a. This line was 11 syllables but i think Shakespeare didn't count the a so that he could get all of the words he wanted into the line.
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Doth
Archaic third person singular present of do.
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pilgrimage
A religious journey.
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Lifts up his burning head, each under eye
Unstressed: Lifts, his, ing from burning, each, and der from under. Stressed: up, burn from burning, head, un from under, and eye. The rhythm creates a beat that goes along with the 10 syllables per line.
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And having climb'd the steep-up heavenly hill,
Unstressed: And, ing from having, the, up, and enly from heavenly. Stressed: hav from having, climb'd, steep, heav from heavenly, and hill. The rhythm created is used to make a couple of the words seem more important.
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feeble
Feeble means lack of physical strength as a result of age
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But when from highmost pitch, with weary car, Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day, 10 The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are From his low tract and look another way:
The rhyme scheme is A B A B; C D C D; E F E F. Car rhymes with are and day rhymes with way. Just like light rhymes with sight and eye rhymes with majesty.
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www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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“our engagement with Shakespeare has been long and sustained: generation after generation of Americans has fallen under his spell”, he is acknowledging this most surprising fact – that Shakespeare’s afterlife as the greatest playwright who ever lived is now as much an American as a British phenomenon
I don't believe that Shakespeare is the "greatest playwright who ever lived." Just because he is well known in the US does not mean that he is automatically the best there is.
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in which the mirror of his great dramas gets held up to a society perpetually in search of itself.
Personification- This is giving Shakespeare's work the ability to hold up a mirror. By doing this the author makes the work done by Shakespeare an object that could be compared to society.
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our national poet,
I don't understand why it would say "our national poet". Shakespeare was not even from the United States. He might have been a well known poet, but how could he be our national poet.
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