THE TEMPEST

THE TEMPEST

The Tempest is write in 1611 and it is one of Shakespeare romantic comedy. The play treats the film theme of forgiveness and is set in a fairy-tale atmosphere of a magic island, magic power and spirits. many character have symbolic relevance: Prospero, the main character. is a good magician, he was the Duke of Milan who has been dethroned by his brother Antonio and he was turned adrift to sea with his daughter Miranda, a sensitive and pity-full girl. They reach an isolate island where the witch Sycorax lives. Thanks to magic power, Prospero frees several spirits imprisoned by the witch. They include Ariel who, together with the witch's son Calibano, serves Prospero. They lived on the island for 12 years, until Prospero, by means of his magic power, wrecks a ship off the coast of the island. On board there is Antonio, Alonso, the king of Naples, and his son Ferdinando. The passengers are all saved but believe Ferdinando has perished and he thinks the same of them. In accordance with Prospero's s, Ferdinando and Miranda fall in love. After various events, adventures and conspiracies, Antonio repents and reconciles himself with Prospero. The ship is magically repaired and all embark on it for Italy.

SOUND DEVICES

The sound devices are typical features of poetry witch give a musicality. They are the alliteration (repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words that are next or close to each other), the assonance (repetition of a vowel sound with a different end consonant), the consonance (repetition of the end consonant with a different vowel sound)the onomatopoeia (creation and use of words which imitate the sound that they describe), the rhyme (identity of sound in a final syllables of words), the internal rhyme(two rhyming words appearing within the same line), the rhythm (the pulse that gives a particular sense of movement and is meant to appeal to the ear as well as to reinforce meaning), the repetition (a unifying device between sound and meaning) and the enjambement (the grammatical continuation from one line to the next.

MEANING DEVICES

To appreciate a poem a vital contribution is given by the meaning devices. They are the simile (a ure of speech in which one thing is said to be like another, the words like or as are always used), the metaphor (a implied comparison describing one thing as being another) and the personification (endows animals, objects or inanimate entities with human characteristics).

THE SONNET

The term sonnet derives from the Italian sonetto, a little sound or song. The first example we have are by Giacomo da Lentini but the sonnet established its importance as a poetic form with Petrarch's Canzoniere. The poets who came after him took his sonnets as a model. The Petrarch's sonnet consists of two quatrains and two tercets .In the Renaissance, English poets express their chaste adoration of the Virgin Queen Elizabeth I. The English poets of sonnets were Wyatt, Surray, Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare. The Elizabethan sonnet is given by three quatrains and a couplet. The usual rhyme was ABAB-CDCD-EFEF-GG but this structure was more flexible. In the quatrains there is a problem and in the couplet there is the solution of the problem. With William Shakespeare the Elizabethan sonnet had the best results, he wrote 154 and are dedicated to Mr.W.H., who has identified with two friends and patrons of Shakespeare. The themes are death, love, poetic immortality, old age and friendship.

NOT MARBLE

This is one of Shakespeare's sonnet. The poet want to tell at the people that the poetry will last longer than monuments and the person who love the poetry will live for eternity. In this sonnet the major idea is a contrast: the destruction of monument versus the immortality of the poets and the material versus the spiritual. The sonnet is divided in three quatrains and a final couplet and it has a regular rhyme scheme. The first two quartain are concerned with the idea that memorials are liable to the time, while the poetry is not. The third conveys the idea that the poetry outlives everything else, and the couplet sums up the whole meaning: the poets gives immortality , and the feelings expressed in this sonnet will be survive by generations to come.

MY MISTRESS'EYES

It's ironic and mocking Shakespeare's sonnet, it's very different from the other sonnets of Shakespeare's time, it is not conventional and presents something new. The poet compares some parts of his lover's body, like the lips, to elements of nature, like the coral. The sonnet can be divided into three quatrains and a final couplet. In the quatrains he describes his lover and she isn't very beautiful because her eyes don't shine like the sun, her lips and cheeks are pale, differently from the red coral and the roses, if snow is white, her breasts are dun, her hair are compared to black wires, her breath isn't a perfume and her voice isn't a pleasing sound. In the couplet he says her loves her as much and he is impossible to write a false comparison. It is inusual and realistic description because she is unattractive, but she is irresistible. He expresses a judgement on the other poets who have exaggerated when they have described their woman. Shakespeare's beloved is ordinary and realistic but she is superior and rarer then the women praised by the insincere, exaggerated comparisons of the conventional love sonnets.

This sonnet has a regular rhyme scheme.

SHALL I E THEE TO A SUMMER'S DAY

It's one of the most well known of Shakespeare's sonnets. The poet says that he will make the beauty of his beloved immortal by celebrating it in his poem. The sonnet can be divided into three quatrains and a final couplet. In the first quatrain the poet states that the youth is more beautiful than a summer's day, because he livelier and more steadfast. In the second quatrain the poet highlights the defect of the summer, which is too inconstant often too hot and cloudy. The sun is given human qualities, as for example eyes, and the colour of human complexion. In the third quatrains the poet states that the youth's beauty will outlive death and summer through the poem. The image of the summer is revoked in this quatrains, but is now portrayed as being eternal. There is a personification also in this quatrain, since human qualities are given to death, who has the power of bragging. The final couplet restates the idea that the poem will give eternity to the youth. The sonnet has a regular rhyme scheme. There are many examples of alliteration and repetition.