Death Sums Up This Week / Couplets - Poetry Blog 1 (Week 5 and then we are done. That Time of Year)

"This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long."

~ William Shakespeare, That Time of Year


First off, I would like to point out something that will probably be discussed (or at least briefly mentioned) in class - this is a sonnet. That's 14 lines, people.

Secondly, I would like to say that I am sensing a pattern in Shakespearean sonnets. In William's last poem we analyzed, My Mistress' Eyes, he presented 12 lines of poetry that seemingly had one meaning, but then the last couplet completely changed the message; it turned the poem from critical and demeaning to realistic yet sweet. This poem is no different; the first three quatrains each have their own metaphor for death - which seems to be a recurring theme in almost every poem - the nature (birds and trees) to twilight and dusk to the "ashes of his youth," or fire. But what seems to be a reflection on imminent death takes on not a different meaning, but a more complex one. The last two lines say "this thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, to love that well which thou must leave ere long"; in English, that means that because the woman he loves knows he is old and may die soon, her love grows stronger for him and she cherishes it more because they have a limited amount of time until he will die. Or, I guess he may not even be that old, but the couple just recognizes how short life is. So, at first the poem meant that death was near, but now it means that we should love others to the fullest before we die.