Let us rather / Hold fast the mortal sword, and, like good men, / Bestride our down-fall’n birthdom. Each new morn / New widows howl, new orphans cry; new sorrows / Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds / As if it felt with Scotland, and yell’d out / Like syllable of dolour.
Act IV, Scene 3 · Macduff
Context
Macduff responds to Malcolm's suggestion that they weep over Scotland's suffering. Instead, Macduff urges Malcolm to take up arms and defend their fallen homeland.
Analysis
Macduff's rapid-fire catalogue—'New widows howl, new orphans cry; new sorrows'—uses anaphora ('new') to make the horrors feel relentless, as if each morning mechanically produces fresh grief. The repetition mimics the exhausting rhythm of daily violence under Macbeth's reign. By personifying heaven as struck in the face and yelling back, Shakespeare makes Scotland's pain cosmic, turning political suffering into a visible wound on the universe itself.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Shakespeare measures tyranny not just by body count but by its corruption of time—Macduff's syntax turns morning, traditionally a symbol of renewal, into a factory of death, showing how Macbeth has perverted even natural cycles.