The contrary states of mind are of that of envy versus contentment. In the first half of the sonnet, the speaker is envious. He feels that he is "all alone" and that he is in an "outcast state". He wishes that he were "like to one more rich in hope" and desires "this man's art" and "that man's scope." In other words, he wants to be everyone except who he currently is.
However, luckily for this speaker, he has a young friend to turn his envy into contentment. When he thinks of his friend, he is "like to the lark", a simile meaning that his spirits soar and sing. At these thoughts, he doesn't even want to change his life with a king's. He is pleased.
Shakespeare first uses transitions to take the audience from the envy to the contentment. He starts with "when" to indicate only certain times, then uses the transition "yet" in line 9 to indicate a contrast to what has come before, and finally uses the word "then" in line 10 to show the change from one state to another.
Additionally, Shakespeare uses contradictions in his description to emphasize the contrasting states of mind. From "sullen earth" to "heaven's gate", and "deaf heaven" to "bootless cries", the audience has enough "this" (this man) and "that" (that man) to be consistently reminded that the speaker's state of mind is two-fold and contrasting.
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