Sonnet Analysis

The Beast

The global warming issue is a beast

The glaciers melt into the deep blue sea

Our hunger for our oil has increased

The beast will grow and never hear our plea

Endangered species soon will disappear

And rainforests will die for human use

Society is dying year by year

But all we do is make up an excuse

The ozone layer's thinning as we speak

The atmosphere is lacking oxygen

But no one cares because we are too weak

Armageddon is the only option

We need to change our ways or face our death

The beast will come and smother our last breath

In our sonnet, we wanted the readers to think about how much damage we are actually doing to the environment and the Earth. "The global warming issue is a beast." We used this metaphor because like a beast, the issue is nasty and is growing daily, and thought it was a good representation of how bad our issue of global warming has become.

            Our first stanza gives just a taste of what is to happen throughout the sonnet. Examples of the peril going on in our world are reminders of how we need to change our actions or suffer. "The glaciers melt into the deep blue sea. Our hunger for our oil has increased." We used these examples in contrast because it was a shrinking of our polar ice caps and our increase of demand for oil. "The beast will grow and never heed our plea." This is a metaphor for our growing problem. If we let the issue grow and get out of hand, we won't be able to stop it.

            The second stanza brings up an important point, and is also ironic in a sense. "And rainforests will die for human use." We are killing off endangered species and cutting down acres and acres of their habitats. "Society is dying year by year." Though we are destroying parts of our natural world, we as a society are the ones dying slowly. Without resources like the rainforest and the diversity of nature, we are depriving ourselves and future generations of the natural beauty we are destroying for modern conveniences. "But all we do is make up an excuse." This line pertains to the excuses we have made so that big companies can keep cutting down trees to build things like large corporate buildings and hotels. They tell us that in the long run, killing forests will be worth it because we will have modern luxuries that many others don't, but we are actually losing natural beauty that has been on Earth much longer than concrete and swimming pools.

            In the third stanza, without realizing it, we connected two of the growing problems with global warming. "The atmosphere is lacking oxygen." This is a huge problem because we are adding more carbon dioxide to the air we breathe than plants can take in and turn into breathable oxygen. This connects with the next line of the stanza. "But no one cares because we are too weak." We don't stand up for ourselves when large companies want to change the natural environment we live in, and just let them destroy parts of nature. This connects to the previous line in the stanza because we are getting weaker from lack of oxygen, and the large companies can just keep building and building until eventually there will be not enough space and too many buildings to keep expanding their corporate empires. "Armageddon is the only option." This line doesn't fit perfectly into iambic pentameter, but we tried to write a strong last line to our third stanza. If we keep heading towards companies and buildings instead of forests and native species, we will eventually see our own extinction in the near future. Armageddon, being the end of the world, will soon be seen as a definite possibility, and we will regret what we didn't do to prevent utter destruction from happening.

            The last two lines were the ones I thought had the most impact, and bring the entire sonnet together. "We need to change our ways or face our death." Scientists have predicted that if we don't change our ways of living now, there will be nothing to live for in the near future. Ice caps will melt, entire cities will flood, earthquakes will quickly change modern homes to rubble. "The beast will come and smother our last breath." This line brings the sonnet full circle by referring back to the metaphor of global warming as a growing beast we used in the first stanza. If the problem keeps getting bigger and bigger and we do nothing to stop it, we will eventually succumb to the beast as it ravages our society and ways of living.