Fear No More
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Fear
no more the heat o’ the sun;
Nor the furious winter’s rages,
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.
Nor the furious winter’s rages,
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.
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:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.
Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke:
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.
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.
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!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing ill come near thee!
Quiet consummation have;
And renowned be thy grave!
In ‘Fear No More The Heat of the Sun’ Shakespeare uses pathetic
fallacy, weather conditions representing human emotion, and images of earthly
struggle or difficulty to portray death as a relief. Although he presents death
as inevitable these images are meant to comfort and sooth the dead and mourning
as the departed will be moving to a better place.
The poem opens with the phrase ‘fear no more’, which is then
repeated a further three times in the poem, which suggests death provides an
end to particular earthly fears. The repetition not only serves to emphasis the
many troubles we face in earthly life, but also acts as a soothing method for
the poetic voice as if he is trying to convince himself that the deceased will
be better off.
This repeated phrase is connected to natural images of weather
conditions and seasons that are used by Shakespeare to represent human
emotions. The contrasting weather of the ‘heat o’ th’ sun’ and the ‘furious
winter’s rages’ represent emotional extremes of romance or passion and then
misery, loneliness or despair. Although we often associate the sun with being a
positive we must not forget its power to burn, which is also true of love that
can give us unbelievable emotional highs, but is also prone to cause lasting
pain and strife. Winter is used in a more traditional manner and the cold and
harshness of the season clearly resonates with feelings of isolation and
loneliness, but could also represent the ravages of old age (as winter
represents the end of our lives as trees and flowers wither and die away) and
the fact the deceased will no longer have to face this.
In addition, Shakespeare tells the deceased they will no longer
have to worry about ‘lightning flash’ or ‘dreaded-thunder-stone’, both of which
could represent emotions of shock or fear. I think he uses these divergent
weather conditions to suggest that death frees us from uncertainty and the ups
and downs of human life. He presents our avoidance of this rollercoaster as a
positive journey, but I believe that the words of the poem suggest that the
poetic voice is not completely convinced this is true.
In the third stanza, the poem claims the deceased has ‘finished
joy and moan’. This is presented as a positive and that is understandable in
terms of issues that cause humans to moan such as the financial difficulties
suggested by having to care about ‘clothe and eat’ and being subject to a
ruler’s whims and fancies implied by the phrase ‘the frown o’ th’ great’. These
phrases both tell us that death allows us to escape earthly pressures, like
supporting and feeding a family, and having to avoid upsetting others and
becoming victim to their desire for revenge or punishment. However, Shakespeare
also links death to the end of joy, which can surely not be a positive. This
may just hint at the true feelings of the poetic voice, and gives the reader a
hint of their regret that the deceased will never again experience the dizzying
highs of life.
Alternatively this could be interpreted as being the state of
things in the next life. Although heaven is supposed to be a kingdom of love, it is also one free of extremes of emotion and
thus romantic highs are not really something one would associate with the next
life. There is a clear suggestion that the poetic voice feels the deceased will
transcend to heaven in the opening stanza; Shakespeare says the deceased has
gone ‘home’, which tells us that earth was only a temporary destination and has
connotations of warmth and comfort. Further, they have ‘ta’en thy wages’ which
implies that their actions on earth are converted to credit in the next life.
This is clearly referring to heaven and the ‘wages’ must represent the morality
and virtuous life the deceased has led, thus securing a spot in heaven.
Whether this person was truly virtuous we do not know, but the
purpose of claiming they will ascend to heaven is again soothing. It is easier
for the mourners to accept the death if they think that life will continue and
be better for their loved one. In addition to this, Shakespeare repeats the
idea that all ‘come to dust’ (whether they be wealthy or poor, distinguished or
not, loved or loathed) to emphasize the inevitability of death. If all of us
are going to meet the same fate then we need not fear it; death is thus
presented as an inevitable part of life and something we should embrace and
accept rather than curse and fear. However, the confidence in this ascension
and in a peaceful life after death, expressed through the listing of various
earthly worries, is undermined by the final stanza.
A series of imperatives commands evil spirits and the likes not to
interfere with the deceased. The use of exclamation at the end of each of these
commands demonstrates the passion and intense mourning of the poetic voice. The
prior calm and confidence of the opening three stanzas is completely dismissed
and it is as if true grief has overcome the poetic voice at the end. However,
the fact that the poet has to warn off ‘witchcraft’, ‘ghost’ and ‘exorciser’ suggests
that the soothing confidence that everything will be better in the next life is
not absolute. The warnings imply the poetic voice has worries about the afterlife
and exactly what will happen to their deceased friend.
So Shakespeare has used a combination of weather imagery and
pathetic fallacy alongside images of aspects of earthly struggle and toil to
present death as a positive and inevitable part of life and something that will
beckon a happier existence. However, there are a few slips in this presentation
and a sense of regret and lamentation can be traced in the fact that the
deceased will no longer experience the highs of human existence and there is
also an expression of fear in the final stanza as the poetic voice tries to
ward off evil spirits.
Summary
This poem has been
taken from Shakespeare's play Cymbeline. This is a death poem having universal
appeal. In this poem the poet has expressed his feeling for the rest of the
soul of the dead. It is written for the consolation of the dead. The poet wants
to say that a dead person becomes free from all kinds of worldly anxieties. It
is full of moral lessons.
A
dead person cannot feel the heat of the sun. A living person has to face the
scorching sun and bitter coldness of the winter season. But after death, he
gets rid of them. After death a person goes to heaven, which is his permanent
home. As a laborer works and goes home after taking his wages, so a dead person
goes home with his success and failures. The poet further advises a dead person
not to be disappointed from death because death is the fate of every person. It
lays its icy hands over all whether he is a handsome fellow, a beautiful girl
or a chimney sweeper. All must die one day.
A dead person is immune from the anger
of his master. In his lifetime, he is in financial trouble. He has no
sufficient money for buying necessary cloth and proper fund. Consequently, he
has no proper cloth to cover his body and proper food to satisfy his hunger.
But after death, he does not feel any necessity of these things. Death is very
impartial. It does not distinguish between the poor and rich. Kings, learned
men, physicians and doctors must die one day.
A dead man does not fear the lightening
flash nor thunder-storm. He is free from public criticism. Joy and sorrow are
the same for him. In his life time sometime he is happy and sometimes sad. But
after death, he does not feel anything. At last the poet says that death should
not be the cause of sorrow because all persons, whether they are young lover or
old one, must die and meet the dust. It is lyrical and follows a systematic
pattern, example 'the sun' 'done', 'rages',
'wages' 'must' 'dust' etc.
Analysis
Death
knows no age, culture, social class, or gender. It is the inevitability that
defines equality between every soul and meaning to every life. This idea is
prominent through the poem, “Fear No More the Heat o’ the Sun”, written by
William Shakespeare. In the poem, the author embodies the narrator speaking to
the audience about living without the fear of several difficulties in life. The
poem is somewhat of a funeral song, in which the author formulates an argument that
highlights the significance of death. Shakespeare illustrates the theme and
messages in the poem through repetition, structure, diction, and hyperbole. All
at which contribute to unify this metaphorical piece that attempts to
consolidate those who have lost a loved one or advice those trapped in anxiety
- prevented from living life to the absolute fullest.
Repetition
and structure are the roots, at which stabilize the poem. Initially, the
phrase, “Fear no more” reappears at the beginning of the first three stanzas to
reinforce the idea of living without worry. Shakespeare consistently includes
the end rhymes “must” and “come to dust” as the final couplet of the first
three stanzas in order to sternly state the inevitability of death.
Themes of the Poem
William Shakespeare utilizes simplistic language
to emphasize the themes in “Fear no more;” however, he exercises complex
metaphors to depict the struggles one undergoes during a lifetime and as a
result urges the reader to overcome all melancholic sentiments that lead one to
oppose a peaceful death. The diction applied in “Fear no more” efficiently
creates emphasis on specific sections of the poem. In addition, the euphonic
flow used by Shakespeare illustrates the author’s serenity and resignation
towards the subject at hand. In essence, Shakespeare’s “Fear no more” employs
rhetorical devices such as repetition, appeal to the audience, and imagery to
reveal the desired theme.
The fundamental theme of this poem is regarding
the significance of succumbing to death, for after having a full life everyone
must fearlessly face the end. In addition, the poem emphasizes that one should
not fight against the arrival of death in any of its forms. In fact, this
argument is first introduced in the title and further displayed throughout
Shakespeare’s poem. In the first line of all three stanzas, the author begins
with the phrase, “Fear no more,” openly showing his belief that one should
willingly submit to mortality. Furthermore, the poem’s theme is displayed
through the phrase “all must … come to dust.” By acknowledging that death is
inevitable for all of humanity, the author attempts to emphasize his belief
that one should not “fear” fate. The theme of the poem is also reinforced
through repetition. For example, to emphasize his stance, the author repeats
the phrase, “Fear no more” in the first line of the first, second, and third
stanza of the poem. Once again this occurs with the phrase, “must… come to
dust” in the fifth and sixth line of the first, second, and third stanza.
The
poem ‘Fear no more heat o’ the sun’ by William Shakespeare is a poem about that
death can come at any age, and all the troubles and worries that happening
while living will not matter while we are dead. In this poem the persona
reassures the responder about the notion of death numerous times. The
imperative mood of the opening line, “Fear no more…” reassures the responder
about the notion of death. Shakespeare’s repetition of this line
throughout the first three stanzas reinforces this idea, while the volta
created by the shift to the exclamatory mood in the final stanza serves to
drive this message home for the responder as it soothes the human anxiety about
death. The juxtaposition of the two extremes of the “heat o’ the sun” and the
“furious winter” reinforces the idea that we have no need to fear even the most
harsh seasons. Furthermore, Shakespeare personifies the winter in order
to dramatize this contrast while the diction of the adjective “furious” emphasizes
this drama. The juxtaposition of the two extremes “Golden lads and girls”
(“golden” symbolizing wealth and favor) and “chimney-sweepers” (symbolizing the
poor street urchins) conveys the idea that death is inevitable, because these
extremes represent the children of the richest and those of the poorest classes
to symbolize that death equally to all humanity regardless of
social-class. The diction of “must” creates high modality to emphasize death’s
inevitability, which is represented by the metaphor and biblical allusion “come
to dust”. This allusion, together with the diction “must”, is repeated at the
end of the first three stanzas to highlight the poem’s central thesis about the
inevitability of death.
Secondly,
within the second stanza focuses the human condition to convey that death will
liberate us from these concerns. Shakespeare states that we need not fear
the metaphoric “frown of the great” and “tyrant’s stroke” to highlight that
death will liberate humanity from oppressive rulers. Similarly, we are reminded
that in death we need not have physiological and safety worries, “to clothe and
eat”, as Shakespeare suggests these are irrelevant in death. Shakespeare
lists the various professions through the synecdoches, “the scepter, learning,
physic”, referring to everyone from the king, to the teacher to the doctor, to
convey that all humankind, regardless of profession, will be a victim of death.
In the poem’s final stanza, the exclamatory lines focus on the evils that
trouble humanity, symbolized by “witchcraft”, “Ghost” and “ill”, building the
tension that is then diffused in the softer diction of the final couplet. As
the poem ends, “Quiet consummation have / And renowned be thy grave!”, this
leaves the responder with the idea that death is a time for peace. In conclusion,
the poem juxtaposes the complex needs and fears of life, shelter, safety, food
and love with the simplicity and finality of death as we all “must”, simply,
“come to dust”.
Overview
This
poem is all about death and trying to help someone coping. Strangely though it
is addressed to the deceased as an imperative (order), but is really designed
to help the poetic voice cope with the loss of a friend or lover as they try to
see death as a positive journey ending earthly worries and concerns. However,
this is tinged with high emotion throughout and particularly in the final
stanza.
Context
This
poem comes from the drama, Cymbeline by Shakespeare. In
this drama, King’s daughter, Imogen,
falling victim of a plot by her stepmother to put her non-royal son, Cloten, on
the throne by marrying him to Imogen. However, Imogen has fallen in love with
and secretly married another person, who is banished for going behind the
King’s, Cymbeline.
Anyway, it all gets very
complicated and Imogen dresses up as a man to run off to find her love and ends
up sheltering in a cave with two young men who bear a striking resemblance to
her. It turns out that they are her brothers who’d been kidnapped at birth and
brought up by a traitor. These two brothers, Guiderus and Arvirargus (at this
stage known as Polydore and Cadwal), are our speakers as Imogen takes some
medicine as she is feeling weak from her journey, which appears to kill her. The
poison had been planted by her stepmother at some point, but then switched by
the court doctor to something that only had the appearance of being lethal.
When her brothers mourn they think she is a good looking man ‘Fidele’ and
lament his passing rather than their sisters. The wicked stepmother dies and Imogen
finds love again and her brothers’ true identities are revealed.
Summary of the drama, Cymbeline,
Imogen,
the daughter of the British king Cymbeline, goes against her father's wishes
and marries a lowborn gentleman, Posthumus instead of his stepson, Cloten.
Cloten is the son of Cymbeline's new Queen, a villainous woman who has made the
king her puppet. Cymbeline sends Posthumus into exile in Italy, where he
encounters a smooth-tongued Italian named Iachimo. Iachimo argues that all
women are naturally unchaste, and he makes a wager with Posthumus that he will
be able to seduce Imogen. He goes to the British court and, failing in his
initial attempt to convince the princess to sleep with him, resorts to
trickery: He hides in a large chest and has it sent to her room; that night he
slips out, observes her sleeping, and steals a bracelet that Posthumus once
gave to her.
Cloten, meanwhile, continues to pursue Imogen, but she
rebuffs him harshly. He becomes furious and vows revenge, while she worries
over the loss of her bracelet. In the meantime, Iachimo has returned to Italy,
and, displaying the stolen bracelet and an intimate knowledge of the details of
Imogen's bedchamber, convinces Posthumus that he won the bet. Posthumus,
furious at being betrayed by his wife, sends a letter to Britain ordering his
servant, Pisanio, to murder Imogen. But, Pisanio believes in Imogen's
innocence, and he convinces her to disguise herself as a boy and go search for
her husband, while he reports to Posthumus that he has killed her.
Imogen, however, soon becomes lost in the wilds of Wales,
and she comes upon a cave where Belarius, an unjustly banished nobleman, lives
with his two sons, Guiderius and Arviragus. In fact, the two young men are not
his sons but Cymbeline's; Belarius has kidnapped them to avenge his banishment,
though they themselves are ignorant of their true parentage. They welcome
Imogen, who is still dressed as a boy. Meanwhile, Cloten appears, having come
in pursuit of Imogen; he fights a duel with Guiderius, who kills him. Imogen,
feeling ill, drinks a potion the queen has given her. Although the queen told
her it was medicinal, the queen herself believed it to be a poison. However,
the draught merely induces a deep sleep that resembles death. Belarius and his
adoptive sons come upon Imogen and, heart-broken, lay her body beside that of
the slain Cloten. Awaking after they have left the scene, she mistakes the body
of Cloten for that of Posthumus, and she sinks into despair. A Roman army has
invaded Britain, seeking the restoration of a certain tribute Britain has
ceased to pay. (A "tribute" here is a payment given to one nation by
another in return for a promise of non-aggression.) The disguised Imogen hires
herself out to them as a page.
Posthumus and Iachimo are traveling with the Roman army,
but Posthumus switches to the garb of a British peasant and fights valiantly
for Britain. Indeed, in his combat he actively seeks death: He believes his
servant to have carried out his orders and killed Imogen, and he regrets his
actions. The Romans are defeated, thanks to the intervention of Belarius,
Guiderius, and Arviragus, and Posthumus, still trying to punish himself,
switches back to Roman garb and allows himself to be taken prisoner. That
night, the god Jupiter promises the spirits of Posthumus's dead ancestors that
he will care for their descendant. The next day, Cymbeline calls the prisoners
before him, and the confusion is sorted out. Posthumus and Imogen are reunited,
and they forgive a contrite Iachimo, who confesses his deception. The identity
of Guiderius and Arviragus is revealed, Belarius is forgiven, and the Queen
dies, leaving the king free of her evil influence. As a final gesture,
Cymbeline frees the Roman prisoners and even agrees to resume paying the
tribute.
