William Shakespeare's Poem: Love and Affection
William Shakespeare's poem is about love. In the poem, the speaker addresses his sweetheart directly, emphasizing the importance of her choosing him over others. He tells her to come to him and quit wandering around. The poem employs a variety of literary elements, including repetition and hyperbole. The tone of the poem is romantic and upbeat. The poet has used precise phrases and words to help the listeners understand this. The speaker uses emphasis to express his message in the poem as well. The main theme of the poem is love and affection, and the poet has brought out this theme by using a specific choice of words or diction that enable him to describe his love for his mistress. Moreover, the poem has other features of literature materials such as the use of imageries whereby the poet has used various words that paint a particular picture in the minds of the audience.
Introduction
In this poem, the speaker talks directly to his lover who seems to have gone away from him and he is therefore exploring her to stop roaming away and come back closer to him. He is announcing to his lover that he is coming and therefore she should be prepared to meet him. The speaker anticipates his meeting with his lover and describes the nature of his love to her. In the poem, the poet uses a romantic tone to enhance the theme of love and affection. The tone is evident throughout the poem and helps the audience in understanding the speaker's message to them. In the poem, Shakespeare has also made use of various figures of speech including hyperboles to emphasize his message to the audience. The poet has also used imageries through various phrases.
Tone
The tone of a poem is usually used to describe the attitude of the speaker or poet towards their audience or subject. The choice of words by the speaker in most cases conveys the tone of voice in a poem. The writer's viewpoint on a particular subject may also convey their one in a poetic piece. The tone could also be described as the approach taken by the speaker towards their subject or theme. In this poem, the tone used by the speaker is an affectionate, complimentary, enthusiastic, happy, humorous, joyful, cheerful, nostalgic, seductive, zealous, and exhilarated one. It is the tone used by a speaker in a poem that conveys the emotions and feelings that run through the poem and help to intensify the message or theme of the poem. The tone of this poem by William Shakespeare also lies in the images and how he has presented them, the rhythms and music of the poem, and the type of sentences that the speaker has used to describe their subject or theme. The seductive tone of the poem is evident when the speaker tells the subject "then come kiss me, sweet and twenty" (Shakespeare Line 12). The tone of a piece of literature such as a poem is what attracts readers and draws their attention into reading the piece. It also determines how they will feel as they read the poem or any other literature material. The tone also helps in creating the mood of the poem. For example, in Shakespeare's poem, the tone creates the mood by using specific words and phrases that enlighten the mood of the poem.
Theme
The main theme of this poem is that of love and affection. In the poem, the speaker talks about love generally and involves the poet talking directly to his mistress. He tells her to stop waiting for the right man to come and take her away from him. He tells her to settle for him since he is right there with her. To emphasize the significance of the lady making up her mind and coming to him so that he can make love to her, the poet argues that "What's to come is still unsure" and that "In delay there lies no plenty" (Shakespeare Lines 10 and 11). He also says that even if the lover does not love him now, maybe they will one day become lovers anyway. This is evident when the speaker in the poem says that "Journeys end in lovers meeting" (Shakespeare Line 5). The theme of love and affection that is evident in this poem has also been developed through the use of specific words and phrases that help in shaping the tone of the poem. According to the poet, the lover or mistress need not trip any further from him because he is there for her and hence he urges her to come closer to him so they can meet. The theme of love or romance in this poem has also been demonstrated by the use of words such as "pretty sweeting" or the reference to the man's kiss as "sweet." These phrases and words help the audience to figure out the kind and extent of love that the speaker has towards his subject which is his lover or mistress (Shakespeare 97). The theme is also evident in the speaker's description of the subject in a way that suggests his love for her. Furthermore, the theme of love in this poem has also been portrayed by the description of the mistress or subject by the speaker in the poem. This theme also comes out through the poet's words used to describe his lover in the poem.
Figures of Speech
In a poem, figures of speech usually refer to the combination of word ordering or organization such as antithesis or parallelism, and rhyme schemes and trope which include similes, allegory, epithet, chiasmus, metaphors, irony, personification, and hyperbole. Figures of speech are sets of words and phrases in a poem or any other literature material that are brought together to exalt feelings, emphasize and provoke ideas about the subject of the poem (Bloom 182). Figures of speech are also words or phrases that have different literal and figurative meanings or connotations. They are used to convey a deep message such that one has to read between the lines to decipher their hidden meanings. In most cases, this involves a comparison between two things to show the difference or similarity between them.
One of the figures of speech used by Shakespeare in this poem is hyperbole which is the figurative style used to exaggerate ideas to emphasize ideas or the feature that someone or something possesses. An example of hyperbole from the poem is that in line five when the poet says that "journey's end in lovers' meeting." To an extent, this is an exaggeration of the intensity with which the speaker would like to meet his mistress or lover. This figure of speech helps in bringing about or providing freshness, clarity, and emphasis to a particular expression by the speaker. The hyperbole also helps in stirring emotions of laughter or romance in those reading the poem.
The figures of speech used in this poem play the role not only of emphasizing the theme of the poem but also help in communicating the intensity of the speaker's love to the subject. The hyperbole used by the speaker in this poem also helps the readers to be part and parcel of the theme by identifying themselves with the message that the poet is seeking to communicate to the audience.
Visual Imagery
The visual imagery evident in this poem is the use of words such as "plenty," "sweet," "meeting," "true love," and "sweeting" that directly create imagery in the audience about the subject being described in the poem. Usually, in poetry, visual imageries are used to appeal to the audience's sense of smell, taste, touch, hearing, and touch. The purpose of using imagery in poems is to draw the readers into sensory experiences as they read the poem (Schiffer 69). The images also serve the purpose of providing the readers of the poem with mental snapshots that appeal to their various senses. There can be conceptual, perceptual, and literal imageries in a poem. The conceptual images in a poem portray ideas and concepts while the literal images refer directly to concrete objects and things such as the characteristics of the subject being talked about in the poem. The perceptual images in a poem help in relaying the poet's perceptions as they relate to the subject matter of the poem. The imagery in poetry also helps in getting the message being communicated by the poet across in a visual, vivid, and strong language. The imageries also help in interpreting the poem in their ways. The images in a poem also create different emotions, reactions, and meanings.
Conclusion
In closing, the poem "O Mistress Mine, Where Are You Roaming" by William Shakespeare contains the elements of literature such as tone, theme, visual imagery, and figures of speech. In the poem, the speaker talks to his mistress, beseeching her not to roam away from him. The poem has the theme of romance, love, or affection which has been portrayed by the poet through the use of love phrases and words that evoke romantic emotions in the audience. The poem has also used imageries and hyperboles to create images and emphasis on the theme or message being communicated in the poem.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. “O Mistress Mine, Where Are You Roaming?” Sealed with a Kiss, Jean Elizabeth Ward, 1st edition, 2008, p. 97.
Schiffer, James. Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Critical Essays. Garland Publishing, Inc., 2013.
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare’s Poems and Sonnets. Chelsea House Publishers, 2009
