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Sonnet 97 by William Shakespeare
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Sonnet 97
by: William Shakespeare
Couplet - Lines 13-14
"Or if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near."
- Even if the birds sing, they do so drearily so that the leaves become dim with fear for winter's fast approach
Lines 9-12
Works Cited
The Poem
- "William Shakespeare." The Biography.com website. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 11 May 2014.
- "Sonnet XCVII." Shakespeare's Sonnets. Oxquarry Books, n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.
- "Sonnet 97" No Fear Shakespeare. Sparknotes, n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.
"Yet this abundant issue seemed to me
But hope of orphans, and unfathered fruit.
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And thou away, the very birds are mute."
- Talks about Shakespeare's separation from a young man
- Uses the seasons as metaphors
- Ryhme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
- GG - Rhyming Couplet
- Written in Iambic Pentameter
The Author: Shakespeare
- Shakespeare discusses how nature and its fruit doesn't matter to him because their beauty depends on the young man's presence
- abundant issue = plethora of nature's produce
- So the fruit of nature = orphans without hope - metaphor
- unfathered = one who lost a father
- fruit = offspring
- Double image of nature and birth
- Even the birds are silent in the beloved's absence - hyperbole
- Believed to be born April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England
- 3rd of 6 children
- Married Anne Hathaway in 1582
- Had 3 children
- Managing partner of Lord Chamberlain's Men - popular acting company in London - early 1590s
- Wrote a variety of plays
- Comedy: A Midsummer Night's Dream
- History: Richard II
- Tragedy: Hamlet, Macbeth
- Died April 23, 1616
Lines 5-8
"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:"
- Shakespeare describes the youth being away, while nature goes through summer, autumn, and spring
- teeming = potentially very fruitful, big = pregnant
- prime = spring; It is difficult for him to bear spring without his beloved
- This burden is like a woman giving birth after her husband has died - simile
- widow'd wombs - alliteration
Lines 1-4
"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 everywhere!"
- Shakespeare expresses how dark and horrible winter has been without his beloved because he is his only pleasure
- winter = using seasons as metaphors for the frigid emotional state of his mind
- also winter = imagery to exaggerate effect of separation
- fleeting year - suggests that the time he is with the youth goes quickly, while the winter without him seems endless