Introduction
A consolation or ‘When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes’ is the 29th sonnet of the William Shakespeare. It is dedicated to the ‘faith youth’ or his dear friend. It was written around 1590 but published simultaneously along with his other sonnets in 1609. His other important sonnets are sonnet 146, sonnet 71 etc.
Central Idea
The main idea of the poem is even in the state of despair and depression when you are not feeling positive in life a true and lovely friend could bring smile on your face. Poet do have a friend like that whose thought only brought happiness in his life.
Themes
- Worldly failure- Poet was facing failure at every stage of life. He was humiliated by both fortune and people and their was no positivity in his life. Even the God was not listening his prayers who was turned ‘deaf’ towards him. His cries were ‘bootless’ to the god. He was cursing himself and his fate and comparing himself with other people and making his state more precarious. Such state of worldly failures is basic theme of the poem.
- Sweet love of a friend – In such state of depression a true and lovely friend whose sweet love could turn the tables. It happened with the poet. Although solution to his worldly problems were not found but he got back the positivity in his life just by remembering the sweet love of his friend. He starts to feel like the bird lark who flies high in the sky away from ‘sullen earth’ i.e. woes of the Earth. He is similarly got away (temporarily) from his problems and not thinking about his state of life and wealth of happiness has returned to him and making him feel better than even a king.
Figure of speech
- Alliteration – ‘With what’ has repetition of consonant sound /w/at the starting of the words hence it is an instance of alliteration.
- Assonance – ‘All alone’ has repetition of vowel sound /a/ hence it is an example of assonance
- Simile – Poet has compared his depressive state which got turned into state of happiness-on remembering his friend- with a lark singing high in the sky. This is called simile.
- Metaphor – ‘Heaven’s Gate’ is used for high sky. Lark sings in the sky at a great height hence this height is metaphorically presented through height of heaven. In phrase ‘sullen earth’ it seems like Earth is personified but it’s a metaphor for woes of earthly life.
- Metonymy – In phrase trouble deaf heaven, heaven is an example of metonymy. It is used for God who is closely related to heaven.
Title of the poem
‘A Consolation’ is a very apt and suggestive title. Poet was disappointed, isolated, alone and depressed in life in such state of affairs he had lost all hopes from the life and cursing his fate and everything around. Then his friend’s memory worked as consolation to the poet and his attitude towards life changed from negative to positive.
Structure and Rhyme scheme
Poem is a sonnet having fourteen lines. It’s a Shakespearean sonnet which can be divided into three quatrains and one concluding couplet. It has rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
Critical notes
This sonnet is different in two ways. According to McRae, Firstly, it doesn’t provide solution in the sestet to the problem shown in the octave part. Secondly the repetition of the b-rhyme in lines 2 and 4 (“state” and “fate”) as well as 10 and 12 (“state” and “gate”) which make it deviates from traditional Shakespearean sonnet rhyming.
William Shakespeare : Critical Appreciation of ‘Soul and Body’ (Sonnet 146) – http://ourguruji.in/2023/11/21/critical-appreciation-of-soul-and-bodysonnet-146-william-shakespeare/
William Shakespeare : Critical Appreciation of ‘The Triumph of Death’ (Sonnet 71) – http://ourguruji.in/2023/11/21/critical-appreciation-of-the-triumph-of-death-sonnet-71-william-shakespeare/
William Shakespeare : Critical Analysis of play ‘Twelfth Night’ - http://ourguruji.in/2023/12/18/critical-analysis-of-play-twelfth-night-of-william-shakespeare/
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