Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun William Shakespeare Fear no more the heat o� the sun,       Nor the furious winter�s rages; Thou thy wordly task hast done.                Home art gone, and ta�en thy wages. Golden lads and girls all must,                              5 As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.  Fear no more the frown o� the great;      Thou art past the tyrant�s stroke; Care no more to clothe and eat;      To thee the reed is as the oak:                        10 The scepter, learning, physic, must All follow this, and come to dust.  Fear no more the lightning flash,       Nor the all-dreaded thunder stone; Fear not slander, censure rash;                            15       Thou hast finished joy and moan: All lovers young, all lovers must Consign to thee, and come to dust.  No exorciser harm thee! Nor no witchcraft charm thee!                             20 Ghost unlaid forbear thee! Nothing ill come near thee! Quiet consummation have; And renown�d be thy grave! Questions 1.) What is common about the first four stanzas? 2.) What is meant by the word "wages" in line four?

Analysis The speaker is someone close to the audience.  A footnote later reveals that this poem is taken from one of Shakespeare�s play Cymbeline where two friends take turns addressing a friend they believe to be dead.  The audience is the friend who is believed to be dead.  However, this poem is so flexible that without the above knowledge, the speaker and audience could easily be lovers. The purpose of the poem is to assure the deceased that no harm will come to him or her.  The horrors and evils endured in life are now untouchable to them.  They can now finally take a deep breath and rest.  The speaker(s) name the various items that must have once been uncomfortable to the deceased one.  The descriptions of nature, government, necessity, gossip, and the supernatural are all used. The first stanza contains an understatement in the phrase, �Thou thy worldly task hast done.�  They do not specify the task the deceased has completed, but one could assume that they are speaking of his obligation to live.  In line 4, the word wages is a connotation because it does not mean monetary pay.  Instead, it means the hardships the deceased has endured, the lessons learned, and the wisdom gained from living a fitful life.  The last two lines of the first stanza states that even the highest on the social ladders must all die and become dust. The second stanza begins much like the first stanza, giving the deceased some more examples of things they need not fear.  The ending is much alike as well, reassuring them that the monarchs, intelligence, and doctors must all come together and die someday.  The fourth stanza follows the pattern except it replaces the monarchs with lovers.  Everyone must come and do as the deceased has done and come to dust.  The last stanza is a wish that the two friends have for their deceased comrade.  The exclamation points in the stanza make the two friends sound as if they are trying to ward off the evil spirits that exist in man�s mind.  They are forbidding anything ill to come near their friend so that the deceased will have silent finality as well as reverence to the final resting place: the grave.

poem taken from Wider Than the Sky by Scott Elledge (1990).