Full Fathom Five Poem by William Shakespeare

Ariel's Song Come unto these yellow sands, And then take hands: Curtsied when you have, and kiss'd The wild waves whist, Foot it featly here and there; And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear. Hark, hark! Bow-wow. The watch-dogs bark. Bow-wow. Hark, hark! I hear The strain of strutting chanticleer Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow. Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong. Hark! now I hear them—Ding-dong, bell

from The Tempest Ariel's Song In Act I, Scene II of The Tempest, the ''airy Spirit'' Ariel is ordered by Prospero to lead the shipwrecked Ferdinand to him. She does this by invisibly singing the above song to gain his attention and guide him by the sound of her voice. The second stanza is of particular relevance to Ferdinand since his father drowned.

These lines from The Tempest are magical and rightly world-famous, and as with so much of Shakespeare, the phrase “a sea change” has entered world literature. Like Donne’s later sonnet ‘Death be Not proud, ’ this short verse is affirmative, treating a gloomy subject in an imaginative and positive way.

Like Marcus Aurelius would write were he so inclined. Consolatione philosophae.

Fantastically intriguiging And that is coming from a twelve year old

The poem stands as a good metaphor for how we make myths of our fathers- pairing it with something like Plath's Colossus would be an interesting contrast.

deneme deneme deneme deneme

Though a death is to be mourned, the death of this man is incredibly special. Bodies are supposed to decay, but parts of this man's body have turned into something beautiful and precious. Not only that but sea nymphs are ringing the death knell for this man every hour. The alliteration in Full Fathom Five thy father lies” gives tremendous weight to the profundity of this death.