Sonnet VII

by William Shakespeare

(collected poem 1 - sonnet)

Lo! in the orient when the gracious light

Lifts up his burning head, each under eye

Doth homage to his new-appearing sight,

Serving with looks his sacred majesty; 

And having climbed the steep-up heavenly hill,

Resembling strong youth in his middle age,

Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,

Attending on his golden pilgrimage:

But when from highmost pitch, with weary car,

Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day,

The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are

From his low tract, and look another way:

   So thou, thyself outgoing in thy noon

   Unlooked on diest unless thou get a son.

Review:

The sonnet is about a sunset being compared to a man's age. The theme is that the rise and fall of the sun is the same as a man is, starting young and growing old. It has a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. It has 3 quatrains and a couplet, with iambic pentameter. The whole poem is a simile because it is a comparison. It also contains rhyme. The sun is reffered to as "his" and has actions which is an example of personification.