Write a paragraph explaining how Sir Walter Raleigh uses the English Sonnet form to warn about the pitfalls of growing older.

In "Sir Walter Raleigh To His Son" by Sir Walter Raleigh, he uses the English Sonnet form to warn about the pitfalls of growing older by beginning with the problem and ending with the resolution. He starts with the octave, which states the problem and issue. The problem consists of the Wood, the Weed, and the Wag. The Wood represents a tree, the Weed represents  the string for hanging a man, and the Wag represents the villain to be hanged. He warned that "when they meet, they one another mar." (l.4). In the sestet, Raleigh stated the resolution to the problem to his son. He tells his son to never let himself be joined with the Wood and the Weed and to always beware of them. He told him to beware of them because "while these assemble not, green springs the tree, hemp grows, the wag is wild." (l.9-10) Raleigh uses the English Sonnet form to warn his son of growing older by using the octave to bring up the problem and by using the sestet as a resolution and a way to avoid the problem.