Sonnet XCVII Analysis

Author: Poetry of William Shakespeare Type: Poetry Views: 497

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December's bareness every where!
And yet this time removed was summer's time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

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||| Analysis | Critique | Overview Below |||

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Basically this poem describes the gloominess and loss that a person feels after his lover has been away for a summer. Even though it is summer, it feels like winter and thus he describes it as winter. Notice the winter/summer pairing. There is a continued metaphor of winter throughout the poem, winter symbolizing the soul's winter. Shakespeare describes how even though the land is rich and overabundant with fruit in the spring, to him it only seems like the "hope of orphans, and unfathered fruit." This is a hope that is not real or tangible, and something seems to be missing from it. Due to the "lord's decease," there is an air or gloominess that does not really make the hope hope. In the end line, reference to "winter's near" basically refers to the fact that right now is summer; he cannot bear when the season is actually winter, because it will be worse for him.

| Posted on 2006-02-07 | by Approved Guest

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