In the poem “Sonnet on the Death of Mr. Richard West” written by Thomas Gray the speaker can be detected by indicating all the pronouns and this case only first person pronouns are given like “me” (l.1), “my” (l.7), “mine” (l.7) or “I” (l.13).
Since there are no deictics other than the first person pronouns, one can say that there is no obvious addressee. A specific location or time is not given either but it is clear that the speaker is talking in the simple present. Verbs like “lifts” (l.2), “resume” (l.4), “melts” (l.7) or “smiles” (l.9) prove that.
Looking at the theme of the poem in general, it occurs that a bitter and lonely atmosphere prevails throughout the whole matter. The development of that flair can be found in theme clusters that one can divide from l. 1-4, l. 5-8, l. 9-12 and l. 13-14. The first section deals with the beautiful surroundings of the speaker like “smiling mornings shine” (l.1) or “cheerful fields resume their green attire” (l.4)
that do not seem to delight him because of his deep sorrow. His sadness seems to develop all over the poem – regarding section two (l.5-9) where he describes how his unhappiness affects his body and is only felt by him: “My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine” (l.7). In the third section (l.10-14) the speaker points out other people’s joy and how they find happiness in life.
The last part (l.13-14) shows that the cause of his sadness is his longing for someone who is not there (anymore), most probably a man called Mr. Richard West as it is mentioned in the title. On the whole it seems as the speaker is male since he is talking about how other men are happier than him: “And new-born pleasure brings to happier men” (l.10) and it appears to the reader that there might be an addressee who is not directly addressed but assumingly it is Mr. Richard West the deceased man the poem is about, since the speaker is mentioning his yearning to speak to “him” (l.13) in the last two lines.
127 our experts are availableright now
In the given Poem a lot of metaphors are find. For example “And redd’ning Phoebus lifts his golden fire” (l.2), “Yet morning smiles the busy race to cheer” (l.9) or “My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine” (l.7) which The poem consists overall of an iambic pentametre but makes an exception in line 8. Here the author included an interplay consisting of a trochee with eleven syllables.
Also it is made of two different rhyme concepts. The first one is from line 1-8 and the second one is from line 9-14. Nevertheless they are both alternate rhymes. That makes it a traditional Italian Sonnet. Yet the construction of the content highly reminds the reader of a traditional Shakespearean Sonnet because of its three bigger sections and one smaller at the end as well as the development of the speakers emotions.
