Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies
- William Shakespeare
The poem “Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies” is a song sung by the Spirit Ariel in Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”. The Spirit sings this song to Ferdinand, the prince of Naples, who mistakenly thinks that his father is drowned. In this Shakespeare tells us death is meaningful. It is humorous in its presentation.
The speaker of this poem is Ariel who is very powerful spirit of wind who flies lightly and invisibly playing music and singing songs. Here he sings the song about the death of Ferdinand’s father. According to him, Ferdinand’s father lies thirty feet below the surface of the sea. Ferdinand is very worried about the death of his father. Giving him sympathy Ariel says that his father has got quite meaningful death. His body is not decayed. Every part of his body has been changed into something beautiful, valuable and strange. His eyes are transformed into pearls and bones are’ changed into coral. The sea nymphs welcome his death by ringing the death bell “Ding-dong” every hour.
In this poem, the spirit Ariel has presented very artful and melodious description about the death of Ferdinand’s father. The prince of Naples is worried thinking that his father is drowned. He is very sad about the meaningless death of his father. However, Ariel gives him sympathy by making the death meaningful through his powerful and magical description. He says that nothing of the dead body has decayed or rotten wastefully. Everything of the dead body is changed into meaningful and precious objects at the bottom of the sea. Ariel finally requests Ferdinand to listen to the death-bell rung by the sea nymphs to welcome his father’s beautiful and meaningful death.
Q Is death meaningful in this poem?
In this poem death is shown as a meaningful change. Death is not an absolute end but only a process of transformation into another natural object. The main idea of this song is that - man who is part of nature transforms into another natural objects after death. The body of Ferdinand's father has been changed into something more valuable and strange. His bones have changed into corals and eyes into pearls. Even after death, he is warmly welcomed in heaven by nymphs by ringing the bell.
He says that the bones of his father have turned into coral and eyes into pearls. Sea-nymphs respect him with death bell every hour. None of the parts have wasted but changed into more valuable. Here death is shown not as an absolute end but a new beginning.
Q. interpret the poem Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies.
-The poem "Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies" is taken from Shakespeare's play "The Tempest". Here the spirit Ariel sings this song to Ferdinand, Prince of Naples, who mistakenly thinks that his father is drowned.
Ariel says that Ferdinand's father is dead and is lying thirty feet below in the sea bed. The Prince is very sad to miss his father in a sea-wind, so Ariel gives sympathy to him by saying that death is a meaningful change. He says that the bones of his father have turned into coral and eyes into pearls. Sea-nymphs respect him with death bell every hour. None of the parts have wasted but changed into more valuable. Ariel pretends that he is listening the ding dong sound of the bell.
In this poem death is shown as a meaningful change. Death is not an absolute end but only a process of transformation into another natural object. The main idea of this song is that - man who is part of nature transforms into another natural objects after death. The body of Ferdinand's father has been changed into something more valuable and strange. His bones have changed into corals and eyes into pearls. Even after death, he is warmly welcomed in heaven by nymphs by ringing the bell.
Q.Write an essay on Life and Art.
ESSAY ON “LIFE AND ART”
Life and art are the inseparable things. If there is no art, life becomes meaningless and if there is no life, art is impossible. They are like the two sides of a same coin. It seems to be difficult to define ‘life’ and ‘art’. Life is mysterious and art is the imitation (copy) of life. So life and art are interrelated parts. Life creates art and art provides delight to life. Without any interest in art is a dead life, so art and life are inseparable. Art is related to creation and life is related to experience of happiness, sadness, laughter, tears, joy, certainties and uncertainties. But art brings success in life.
Life is transitory. It changes in different phrases in course of time. A small baby of yesterday becomes a young man today and old tomorrow. Eventually, he disappears from the world resting on the lap of death. Life comes across different sweet and sour events. Life is mixture of tears and smiles. Pain and pleasure are the friends of life. In other words, life is full of emotions, feelings, ideas and sentiments.
Art is the creation of life. It is permanent and immortal. Art makes life beautiful and meaningful. Art makes artist immortal. An artist lives in memory of people all the time after his death. Many literary artists show the relation between art and life. Some say that art is for the sake of life where as some say that art is only for art’s sake. However, life is itself the source of art and art is the source of joy. Art is life and life is art. Without art life seems to be meaningless and unattractive. The different forms of art like music, writing, singing, drawing, acting, dancing etc. make our life fruitful.
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Credit: Dr. Ramesh Adhikari Google
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