Aubrey Babala

Mrs. Gardner
English 10H/Period 6
11 September 2016
Analysis of Sonnet 153
Sonnet 153 tells an engaging story about Cupid and his fire that contains love, using many
different types of colorful diction. In the four lines William Shakespeare writes of when Cupid falls asleep
next to his torch; a maid of Dians steals the love-kindling fire and puts it in a cold valley-fountain
of that ground. These four lines enclose eye-catching diction; between the love-kindling fire and the
cold valley-fountain the reader of this sonnet is drawn to continue reading. The following four lines
indicate that the fountain now contains the dateless lively heat from the holy fire of love; men come
to the seething bath in search for a cure against strange maladies. The diction that Shakespeare uses
in these four lines is informational for the reader. The reader has already been pulled in by the
eye-catching diction and they are now receiving the informational diction that is needed for the rest of the
sonnet to come together. The succeeding two lines tell of how the mistress eye loves brand new fire
and Cupid for trial needs would touch the chest of the speaker. The two short lines are still
informational; however, they also consist of transitional diction that is required for the finale of the
sonnet. In the final four lines Shakespeare writes of how the speaker the gets ill with love, the help of
bah desired, soon the speaker becomes a sad distempered guest which means he does not like the
overwhelming feeling of love. The speaker found no cure in the bath, for the cure is where Cupid got
new fire; in the mistress eyes. In these last four lines there is a longing diction that is used. The deep
want for the cure of being love-sick is a longing; words like desired and help create a longing. Sonnet
153 uses different types of diction to tell a story of love.