In Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73, the writers both explain their own journey of “being alive” and finding out the importance of love and the want to be remembered when they leave the earth. In “Sonnet 73”, the poet expresses his desire to be remembered when he dies. He’s realizing that his youth is over and that his time to die is approaching rapidly. He has come to the understanding that his time has come, as does everybody’s, and with this epiphany his desire to be remembered grows rapidly like a wildfire ravaging through a forest. Similarly, in Bradbury’s novel he takes us through Doug’s experience of becoming “alive” and the devastating impact death can have on other’s lives. In the novel, like the sonnet, the writers have a hard time grasping the concept of time and death. When Bradbury first discovers that everyone dies, including themselves, it changes his entire outlook on life, and as a result that can’t be avoided, it removes his shield of innocence and feeling of invincibility. Throughout both pieces of literature both writers have to come to the life altering realization that their youth is over and that their time on earth is limited and can be taken very suddenly. The writers have come to an understanding that everyone must die including themselves, that their very own youth is its very own life of itself that they must let go of, and they both have a burning desire to not only be remembered by their loved ones and family but for their legacy to be carried on and live through their friends and family.
Both writers come to the inevitable realization that everyone including them must eventually die and leave this world. For example, in “Sonnet 73” the poet understands that he must die and that with this understanding comes his desire for him and others to love more because his days are limited,”This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong. To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.” The poet and his loved ones understand that his time of death is approaching. He wants his loved ones to love him more than before and he also loves them more now because of his realization that everyone dies and he wants to love because his particular time of death is nearing. Likewise in Dandelion Wine Bradbury also has an realization that everyone including himself must die. For example, when Doug is writing in his journal about people dying he realizes that if “Grandma can die. Who was supposed to live forever can die”, that even he can die,”I Douglass Spaulding some day….must….die….”. Doug realizes that everyone must die even if they thought they were invincible like grandma was. He thought that he could live for as long as he wanted and everyone else would just live forever too. Both writers had the same epiphany that people who were thought to be simply unable to die could just disappear and pass away including themselves.
The writer’s also realize that youth is its own life and once it’s gone it can never come back no matter how bad that person wants it too. An example of a person who simply won’t let go of their past is Mrs.Bentley in Dandelion Wine. She tries to relive her past experiences as much as she can because she thinks of those as her “best days”. For example, she tries with everything she has to convince the little children that she was once young,”But I was young, many years ago, a little girl just like you.” Mrs.Bentley tries to convince the girls that she was young and had a youth just like they are experiencing now. Only after a flashback with her late husband does she realize that she has been trying to live in the past for as long as she remembers. Mrs. Bentley realizes that a person must live in the “now” and not in the past. Similarly, in Sonnet 73, Shakespeare realizes that no matter how much he wishes he could go back to his youth and relive those moments he can’t. For example,”That on the ashes of his youth doth lay.” Shakespeare wants to go back and live those days again because,”In me thou seest the glowing of such fire.” Shakespeare sees his youth as his “prime” when he felt invincible and nothing could ever happen to him including his death. Both writers came to the realization that both of their youth’s are their own lives, a phase that no matter how hard they try they cannot relive. Both Shakespeare and Bradbury at first believe firmly that they can relive their youth when instead they should let go of it and live in the present.
Both writers also have a desperate desire to be not only remembered but to live on through their loved ones. They feel like to reconnect with their youth ,which they want, they need to live on after they die through family and friends. However, the main reason both writers want to be desired is because they don’t want to feel like their life was a waste. For example, In Shakespeare’s sonnet he is explaining that when he is on his death bed he will feel like his whole efforts he made to be remembered will be forgotten along with him,”As the death-bed whereon it must expire.” Shakespeare is saying that he has made all of these attempts to be remembered long after he died but he feels like when he dies the world, but more importantly his loved ones, will simply forget all he has done and simply just forget him. Likewise in Dandelion Wine Bradbury feels that once he dies people will just forget him. He wants more than anything to be remembered long after his death and wants his loved ones to remember him because of how much he loves them. For example,”The sea moved him back down the shore.” Bradbury is saying that once a person dies they just “float along” and people forget they ever existed. Bradbury wants the exact opposite of what he thinks happens to happen to him when it’s his time to die. Both writers have a yearning to be remembered long after their death. They both want to be remembered as great men and they also both want their friends and family to love them even when they’re dead. They love their family so much that they consider it their deepest fear to forgotten by them.
Both Sonnet 72 and Dandelion Wine stress the same values in life. Both writers have a want to go back in time to their youth and relive it all again. However, They finally learn to let it go and move on with their lives instead of trying to live in the past life. They both also struggle with the idea of death. They felt like they were on top of the world and nothing bad could happen to them. But when people started dying that were supposed to live forever, and started noticing that more and more people dying they realized that even they had to die. With this much needed realization comes the inevitable desire of wanting desperately to be remembered. They want their loved ones to remember all of their accomplishments and loving memories which brings a paradox into their loved ones lives. The paradox is that both writers realize that they can’t and shouldn’t live in the past and shouldn’t relive memories with now late friends. However, now that they know they are going to die they want more than anything to be remembered long after they have passed away. The writers are entrenched in a mental war between wanting their loved ones to do what the writers disagreed with or not wanting their friends to carry on their legacy and being forgotten forever.