Sonnet 97 Analysis

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Introduction
William Shakespeare’s sonnets cover themes such as passage of time, love, mortality and even beauty. The first 126 sonnets that were written by Shakespeare were addressed to a young man and the last 28 were addressed to a woman. They were first published in 1609. Sonnet 97 is one of the sonnets that addresses an anonymous young man. The first 17 sonnets address the young man urging him to marry and have children so that he can be able to pass his beauty to the next generation. The others like Sonnet 97 speak about the speaker’s affection for the young man.
Theme of Absence and Separation in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 97
The use of the style of imagery through the whole poem. The use of the images of the different seasons in Sonnet 97 shows the shift of moods from gaiety to despair. For instance, he says, "The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,"(line 6). In this case, autumn is characterized as being "teeming" which means "bountiful” or rich increase in harvest. Besides "teeming" also means pregnant. We can, therefore, say that the author of the poem feels barren even though the trees are bearing fruit since he and the youth are separated. In describing the loneliness using winter, but it is summer, the speaker appears to establish a paradox in line 5. In line 5 he says, "And yet this time removed was summer's time"(line 5). It is summer time, but the author has only used winter as a way of enabling one to visualize the emptiness of the lonely lover.
The speaker in the poem appears to be separated from the beloved, and he compares the separation from the beloved like the desolation in winter. In the first line, the speaker says, "How like a winter hath my absence been?"(Line 1). In this line, he has used a simile where he compares the separation from the beloved like the coldness in winter. In fact, if you are reading the poem and then miss the word “like” then you will begin to think that the speaker is addressing winter. However, just like in the other sonnets, the speaker is addressing the anonymous youth who is also addressed in the other sonnets. The speaker begins the poem in a nostalgic tone. In the first part, the speaker wants the person who is reading the poem to understand fully the situation that the speaker is going through. After the mention of winter, he goes ahead to vividly describe winter so ...