Patterns of Sound Analysis - Essay Example

This very regular stress pattern gives the sonnet a steady beat as if marching solemnly to the very end. Each line ends at a natural break point, which also emphasizes the regularity of the poem’s form.

            Within this very tight rhythm and rhyme constraint, Shakespeare adds interest by repeating certain sounds.  Keywords, for example, contain the “s” sound such as  “ soul, center, sinful and suffer” (lines 1-3) and “soul servant’s loss, dross” (lines 9-11)  at the beginning of the sonnet. In contrast,  the end of the sonnet concentrates on the “d” sound with the words “divine, dross, feed, Death, death, dead, dying” (lines 11-14). The very frequent repetition of the monosyllabic “Death” “death” and “dead” in close proximity adds to the strong impact that this idea has. The point of the poem is that death will come at the end of life, as it comes at the end of the sonnet, but the soul can rise above this by remembering that poetry can feed the soul and enable it to live on in the written words long after the physical death of the body.