Old Journal Entry On William Shakespeare's Sonnet 71: #1

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Entry 1 – October 28, 2011

Upon preliminary inspection, I found this poem to surprisingly be lacking in depth and originality. One would suspect that the poem, having been authored by none other than the great Shakespeare himself, would encompass some great literary profundity. However, the poem talks about a relatively overused literary theme; overcoming loss.

In his Sonnet 71, Shakespeare creates a speaker who has passed away. It seems reasonable to conclude that there are no underlying meanings other than the death of his physical body. The speaker focuses on the effect that his death on whomever he is addressing – which in this case seems to be his lover. If this is the case, Shakespeare has shown that the speaker is inordinately possessive of his lover. This is evidenced in the fact that he should try to control the thoughts and actions of his lover even during his afterlife – which must be a creepy experience for the implied auditor of the poem.

Although I can appreciate this half-zombie speaker's hopes of comforting his love, it seems redundant of a certain cycle. The cycle is something that any person could describe; death leads to mourning, mourning leads to consolation, consolation heals the wounds. The imagery that Shakespeare employs is also quite commonplace. The “bell” has always been synonymous to signalling of death (ln. 2). It is also not hard to see what he is referring to when talking about the dwelling place of the “vilest worms” (ln. 4). The speaker also describes being “compounded... with clay”, a very obvious reference to burial. These are just some examples of how a cliche effect was achieved by this sonnet.

Despite the cliche content, there are good examples of alliteration in lines 2 and 4. Shakespeare also employs pertinent diction. However, I felt disappointed and cheated in that this sonnet failed to amaze me. Death in itself, is such a powerful concept – especially when applied to the art of creating literature. It is innately terrifying, yet it is also mesmerizing. It is the cruel practitioner of termination, yet it is also the merciful angel of release. I feel that death loses much of its power and hold over the reader when it becomes centred around the speaker rather than the concept of death itself.

Written for English Literature 12