Shakespeare sonnet 7

I would like to talk to you about Shakespeare's seventh sonnet. We were asked to read this sonnet in silence and then aloud. After that we were assigned the task of rereading this much complicated sonnet and personally decipher the meaning of it and its sent message. Right away the conclusion slapped me in the face. I began to make numerous inferences toward related Ideas and connecting the clues and details that matched. To me, the sonnet is verbalizing the daily journey of the sun. I have many clues that led me to this verdict. Now, I will show a personal and mental analysis that I did during class while observing all fourteen lines of this poesy.

Looking at the first line: "Lo! in the orient when the gracious light" The first thing I did was convert this sentence into a type of paraphrase, one that would facilitate my understanding on this poem. Also, to make my "personal" paraphrase, I created it by keeping the base of the line stuck to my idea of it being the sun. I imagined and conjured up my interpretational evaluation of this sonnet following that line. When I observed: "Lo! In the orient when the gracious light" I thought, "*When the first rays of sun emerge from the east" Orient is another word for east. What inferred me to comprehend it this way is that I had the knowledge that the sun rose in the east and set in the west. Also, if I followed my line of meaning on the sun, that sentence would represent the beginning of the sun's journey through the day.

Now onto the second line: "Lifts up his burning head, each under eye" This small line painted a vivid image in my mind. I thought,» And the sun hoists up his flaming head under the eyes of watching men" I could clearly imagine the illuminated sun, rising under the awed eyes of men, shining in eternal prosperity. It was as if I could feel the intensity in Shakespeare's words. It is not the intensity of the ACTUAL words, it is the intensity if the message overall, the painted picture of the flaming ball rising in an imperious glide across the morning sky. It is intriguing to see how simple words can burn with meaning, these words just represent the action and they are not exaggerated, they speak for themselves.

Now, the third line: "Doth homage to his new-appearing sight" This line was a little more onerous than the others. One problem was that I did not quite completely understand his usage of old English. I assumed that doth was a word for do or give. I deduced that this line probably meant " When I said they, I was unsure because I was not aware about whether doth was a word applied to the plural form. This line made me reflect on modern mentality. No longer to we applaud and praise the rise of the sun. No more are we flustered by the rise of the sun. We have begun to take for granted what was given to us.

The fourth line: "Serving with looks his sacred majesty" I could not immediately make sense of this so I decided to pursue my scrutiny by "scrutinizing" every word on its own or with a second word. I decided to take the easy words that were easily deciphered first: Serving that was quite straightforward, it is still used in modern language. With looks, okay, so I knew they were serving with looks. So, I envisioned the looks on the people who were serving as they served their lord. I could see looks of praise and admiration, faces of worship with a tint of perplexity (and so on). And of course, his sacred majesty, to me, it was obvious Shakespeare was referring to the sun. Of course his words were not speaking literally; it was a figurative way of speaking to say that these people worshipped him and his very presence as a god/lord. "Serving their king, the sun, with looks of awe and amazement" could be a descriptive way to translate his line.

The fifth line: "And having climb'd the steep-up heavenly hill" This was quite complicated for me to penetrate the context and of course, the intended mean. It sounds like "And when the sun escalades the steep hill to heaven (where he ascends into the sky)" Of course, I am no genius, but I find William's arrangement of words quite bizarre. For me, a heavenly hill would be a type of empyrean hill or something, used as a word to describe. Heavenly is a word I use to describe something but I don’t believe Shakespeare was trying to describe the hill, looking at his style and trend in the sonnet.

The sixth line: "Resembling strong youth in his middle age" I am quite fond of this line. For me this says "The sun resembled a strong and youthful being, even at the "middlemost" of his life" I like to think that this applies to him and us. I wonder, if line applied to the glory of the sun as he is youthful for ever more even as his life moves on, it was said as a godlike quality to have. Is that why humans, older people in general, take such when said that they look so youthful. Was this complement very sought for in olden times, to make people feel that they shared the same qualities as god?

The seventh line: "Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still" This line does not challenge me. But I am somewhat befuddled. I am torn between two interpretations of this line. I wonder if this means that "Mortal looks (meaning the sun has a look of the mortals, in the sense of the look of his fragility, his character, basically his resemblance to humans) adore the sun's beauty still (Meaning that these looks cherish his beauty and add to it)" Or whether it has a different interpreted message and it means that "Mortals worship him, the LOOKS, meaning what the mortals are seeing and how there looks adore and revere the sun's beauty." I suppose the second choice sounds a lot like something Shakespeare would use in his language, but even then, the first choice fits perfectly in this poesy. I wonder...

The eighth line: "Attending on his golden pilgrimage" I quite relish his usage of words, especially using the word golden to describe/glorify the word pilgrimage. I deduct that this short line narrates his pilgrimage across the sky. What I mean by pilgrimage is his daily routine. To rise or not to rise, that is NOT the question. Every day the sun does the same thing, light up the earth with happiness and gifts of sunburns. This can be called a pilgrimage, everyday he harmoniously sets out across the sky to recommence his crusade. The word golden has a double meaning, golden as it is precious and to be thankful for and golden because of his golden rays/shine.

The ninth line: "But when from highmost pitch, with weary car" I get to use one of my favorite words for this line. At first, I was not so sure about car meant. Then I clearly remember Fabian going, "Dakshina, tell me if I am wrong, I really do not think that cars where invented in the 1700's!" Consequently, I laughed very hard and assured him that the brilliant but ecologically damaging car had not been invented yet! Then, DING! Of course they did not have cars, but they had chariots! That's what he must have meant by CAR. He must have been referring to a chariot, probably pulled by "heavenly" horses. So I came up with this translation, my favorite word is in bold. "But from the sun's pinnacle, with weary chariot/ horses" I am inclined to think it is the horses that are weary and NOT the chariot.

The tenth line: "Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day" I found this line touching and somewhat sad. When he says feeble age, I think he refers to when the sun grows older and limps away from the day. If you think about it, so he is talking about old and feeble age when you are about to die, and then, when you do die, you stagger away from the day because your death has made you part this day. So what I put on my translation was, "Like old and feeble age, the sun limps away from day" He limps away, to set, that is.

The eleventh line: "The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are"
At first, I did not quite fathom the meaning of this line and how to convert it. So I decided to use my word by word method. The Eyes, which Shakespeare talks about, are probably eyes of men. 'Fore Duteous means that before they were dutiful. Now Converted Are, means that since they are converted, they do the opposite, they now turn away from the sun as he sets.
My translation is: "The eyes of men, before dutiful, now turn away from the sun as he sets"

The twelfth line: "From his low tract and look another way" So following the preceding line, the men are now looking away. This basically means, adding in a bit from the last line, "The men turn away from his route in the sky and look otherwhere"

The thirteenth line: "So thou, thyself out-going in thy noon"
A lot of old English here. I know that thou stands for you. So I can judge that thyself probably means yourself. I believe that what he means by out-going in thy noon, (with a tiny bit of help from an anonymous cousin of mine) is that "So you, yourself on the way to old age"

The fourteenth line: "Unlook'd on diest, unless thou get a son" I will not give you much explanation for this one. I’m sure you can figure it out.

"You shall die unlooked, like the sun, unless you bear a son"
Don’t you find this unfair, I do! This makes me think that even though Shakespeare was advanced yet modern in his style of writing and poesy, that does not change the way he viewed things, the same as other people.

So this is what I understood while reading this poem:

When the first rays of sun emerge from the east

And the sun hoists up his flaming head under the eyes of watching men

They paid tribute to his renewed emergence

Serving their king, the sun, with looks of awe and amazement

And when the sun escalades the steep hill to heaven (where he ascends into the sky

The sun resembled a strong and youthful being, even at the "middlemost" of his life

Mortal looks (meaning the sun has a look of the mortals, in the sense of the look of his fragility, his character, basically his resemblance to humans) adore the sun's beauty still (Meaning that these looks cherish his beauty and add to it)

Everyday he harmoniously sets out across the sky to recommence his crusade

But from the sun's pinnacle, with weary chariot/ horses

Like old and feeble age, the sun limps away from day

The eyes of men, before dutiful, now turn away from the sun as he sets

So you, yourself on the way to old age

You shall die unlooked, like the sun, unless you bear a son


Now I know that this is about the rise and set of the sun and also links to the life of a man.
So this is all the explanation I have to give you about Shakespeare's seventh sonnet. Did you know he died on his birthday?
I also think he made 154 sonnets.
I hope you are happy William, asking me work like this!


By dakshina