Poetic imagery of leaves and the solemn oath of Achilles

Abstract

"I have lived long enough. My way of life Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf, And that which should accompany old age…"

These words, uttered by Macbeth when he is informed of the approach of the English army, invoke a potent mental image, one which connects a withered leaf which has fallen from a tree to the idea of the inevitability of death. It is no accident that Shakespeare chose this simile and placed it in the mouth of Macbeth, a man who would soon meet his destruction. However, this connection between leaves and the inevitability of death was no invention of Shakespeare. Rather, the playwright inherited this image from the most ancient poet in the canon of western literature, Homer.