Fear No More

 Fear no more the heat o’ the sun;

Nor the furious winter’s rages, (metaphor)
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages;
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney sweepers come to dust. (Simile)

Fear no more the frown of the great,
Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke:
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak: (simile)
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust. (Personification)

Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Nor the all-dread thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finished joy and moan;
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.

No exorciser harm thee!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing ill come near thee!
Quiet consummation have;
And renowned be thy grave!

This poem is about death and it says that everyone is going to be turned into dust. The author tries to say that we are all going to die, and that is there no need to stress or worry about life. No one needs to be anxious about tomorrow, about the way they are getting their food or clothe, or being scared of the people in a higher position. No matter, who you are and no matter how old you are, or what position you hold death will always be waiting for you and you’ll be turned into dust. Your family and friends won’t come down there with you, nor will your knowledge.

When death comes to us we won’t fear anything. He’s telling us that we won’t fear the heat of the sun, the winters rage, the frown of the great which are the people of a higher position than us in life, the lighting flash, the thunder stone, and the slander censure rash. Nothing is going to harm us when we are dead. You will be quietly consumed and renowned by the grave. I think the author wrote this poem about death because someone that he loved and was close to pass away, or maybe he was just thinking about death and what would happen after that.

The author is the speaker of this poem and he is generally talking to everyone. The poem is free of cliches, and the tone of the poem is serious, fearless, and careless. The tone doesn’t change throughout the poem. There are 4 stanzas with six lines each. There rhyme scheme of the poem is ababcc. Shakespeare used a figurative language in the poem. In the first stanza, second line “nor the furious winter’s rage”, is an example of metaphor. “Gold lads and girls all must, as chimney sweepers come to dust” is an example of simile in the first stanza, last line. In the second stanza, last line “The sceptre, learning, physic, must all follow this, and come to dust”, is an example of personification. The word fear repeats at the beginning of the first three stanzas in the poem, and so does the word thee. They are an example of repetition. There is no absence of punctuation, and it is a closed poem. I think the title is very good because it doesn’t give away too much of what the poem will be about, and it also gives an idea that it will be about fear and death. This poem is a very good one because I can relate to it. I lost my grandfather last year and this poem reminded me of him, and reminded me that I’m going to be following him someday. This poem succeeded of reminding me of death and that I should live life to the fullest, and not worry about tomorrow because you never know if tomorrow’s sun will rise upon you or not.