"Fear No More" by William Shakespeare

 

   This poem was written by very famous dramatist William Shakespeare. The poem has been taken from his play 'Cymbeline.'  The core message of the poem is to not feel fear from worldly things.  Because ultimately 'death' gonna win this race !

         Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
           Nor the furious winter's rages;
         Thou thy worldly task hast done,
     Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages :
           Golden lads and girls all must,
     As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

    In this poem we can interpret that poet has a feeling for the dead one.  Morally speaking,  poet tells to the dead ones that you don't have to worry anymore because now you are free from every anxieties.  Here poet has given the example of the sun. As we know that it is intolerable to face scorching sun.  Even the furious winter also makes everyone livid. But they all remains away from the dead. Further in this poem we find kind of satire as poet tells to the masters and labourers to take their wages but ultimately they both gonna die. The another satire is on the inequality of the society.  Where these both reach as well as poor lads also going to die,  and then there should be no inequality anymore, as both are gonna mixed in the dust.  So we can say that poet tries to welcome the death as a well wisher for the betterment of future.

     Fear no more the frown o' the great;
      Thou art past the tyrant's strokes;
         Care no more to clothe and eat;
           To thee the reed is as the oak :
     The scepter,  learning,  physic,  must
       All follow this,  and come to dust.

      In the second stanza,  poet says to labourers that one day death will come and make you all free from your tyrant masters. In addition they don't have to worry for clothes and food as after death nothing is required. Furthermore there is no need to be more resilient as everyone on this earth, including powerful people,  they have to follow the same path of death.

        Fear no more the lightning flash,
     Nor the all dreaded thunder stone;
         Fear not slander censure rash;
     Thou hast finished joy and moan:
        All lovers young all lovers must
      Consign to thee,  and come to dust.
 
       The way poet shows the dumbness of life,  is critical one.  As in next stanza poet tells that, the fear of lightning and thunder remains with the living, it can't do anything to the dead. The poet doesn't stop here,  he has a grudge for the society too,  as there are so many slanders in the society which becomes the reason of moan as well as joy of a person, however nothing gonna affect anymore, even the lovers who makes promises of living together for centuries, at the end there won't be any barriers in the heaven, so one shouldn't fear from death.

              No exorciser harm thee!
         Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
             Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
             Nothing ill come near thee!
             Quiet consummation have;
          And renowned by the grave!

Now we reached to the end of the poetry, till now it seemed that the poet is celebrating funeral procession.  But poet is very well awared about the superstitions of people,  so here he makes clear that nobody can harm the great soul,  not even exorcist. Moreover, poet tries to provide some lightness as he tells that even ghost forbears to the dead.  Once person dies, actually he becomes free from all illness, which has been intolerable for the living one.  In the last lines, poet describes life as quiet consummation which comes to its ends in the graveyard and becomes eminent in all over the world.

        Thus,  we can say that poet has a deep sense of life,  which we can feel in this poem. The main themes of the poem is death,  after life and acceptance of fate,  beside that it is something more than this as poetry has a universal quality and its meaning gets changing as the time passes.

Rhyming Scheme : ABABCC, DEDECC,
                                    FGFGCC, HHHHII

     So far we have discussed the poem and now it is the time to reflect our learning. See,  without 'reflective learning' there's no learning at all. For that you have to complete two below mentioned tasks.  

1 : Quiz ( Click on it to appear in the quiz) • To answer these questions you can take help of the blog or Google.    

2 : Thinking Activity 

      This thinking activity is based on your reflective learning.  It doesn't include right or wrong answers.  More importantly,  its core aim is to widen the mental horizon of the students. But take care of some points, like your answer must include the 'critical / individual thinking.'

Answer these questions in your own reflective blog.  

1. What is the significance of the title of the poem?  
2. Justify your understanding of the poem.  
3. What types of fear you have experienced till date?  
4. Do you believe in 'Supernatural Being' ? If Yes/ No. Provide at least 2 or 3 reasons.  

 •  Yes! #Thinking 🤔 is an arduous task. Let's see who can think differently.

   

                       Best Learning !