It's been such a long time since I've written anything. That phrase ought never to be used in the first line of a composition -- as a matter both of ethics and of style. But if I'm to begin again at all, I have to begin with the first thought that strikes me, and given what I am beginning, the first thought that strikes me is that. I am clearing my throat before I speak or testing out my voice. It was much the same thing to say to myself again and again "Hello" when I was young -- just to assure myself that I could speak. It is honesty, anyway, and it is a true record. But wouldn't it be odd to come across the memorial of a man, each of whose entries began, "It has been such a long time since I have remembered...?" This is meditation in the way that I know it -- repeatedly catching oneself. This awareness comes and goes in waves -- in waves, perhaps, it builds into something deeper. Or else it just subsides and reappears. But that is the true record -- after all, real consciousness subsides and reappears, before finally disappearing completely. Think of a man sitting in a room repeating to himself over and over again that word "hello." There is a futility and inanity to it, certainly, but in that there can momentarily be an intention behind it, it is not without significance. Simply that the monument exists proves there was a spark, and though its merely existing may prove the monument was nothing monumental, still to witness that such things as monuments are possible can at least be said to go a way towards our aim. What better witness than the monument itself? "It's been such a long time since I've written anything."
The theme of Shakespeare’s 5 th Sonnet is saving time. In the poem, Shakespeare talks about how time makes beautiful things ugly. He compares growing old to the way that summer changes into winter. Though in the summer there are many beautiful flowers, in the winter all of these beautiful flowers are gone and there is “bareness every where” (8). The winter is so empty that we could almost forget there had ever been flowers at all – if we didn’t “distil” (13) the beauty of summer to make perfume. What Shakespeare means is that we need to find a way to remember being young (the summer) so that when we are older (in winter) we will still be able to remember being happy. We could do this by having children, who will look like us and make us remember who we were when we were young. I just explained the theme of Shakespeare’s poem and summarized the poem. Now I will talk about how he communicates his theme. First, Shakespeare uses metonymy to help us understand how beautiful we ar...
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