Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies

Grade 12 Compulsory English

Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies

 Summery

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.