We have looked at a couple of sonnets in class, and we have discussed the structure of the three types of sonnets. Now, it is your turn. Find a sonnet online, in a book, or on an app. It can be an older sonnet or it could be a more modern sonnet. Analyze the sonnet, and then explain what type of sonnet it is. Use your knowledge of sonnets to justify your analysis.
Monday, December 1, 2014
Sonnet
We have looked at a couple of sonnets in class, and we have discussed the structure of the three types of sonnets. Now, it is your turn. Find a sonnet online, in a book, or on an app. It can be an older sonnet or it could be a more modern sonnet. Analyze the sonnet, and then explain what type of sonnet it is. Use your knowledge of sonnets to justify your analysis.
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Sonnet 54 by Edmund Spenser
ReplyDeleteOf this World's theatre in which we stay,
My love like the Spectator idly sits,
Beholding me, that all the pageants play,
Disguising diversely my troubled wits.
Sometimes I joy when glad occasion fits,
And mask in mirth like to a Comedy;
Soon after when my joy to sorrow flits,
I wail and make my woes a Tragedy.
Yet she, beholding me with constant eye,
Delights not in my mirth nor rues my smart;
But when I laugh, she mocks: and when I cry
She laughs and hardens evermore her heart.
What then can move her? If nor mirth nor moan,
She is no woman, but a senseless stone.
Sonnet 54 by Edmund Spenser is told from the point of view of a man who is in love with a woman who dismisses the emotions of the man. In the beginning of the poem, the man uses a simile to compare his love to a spectator at a show. The man says, “My love like the Spectator idly sits,” (2). The man comments that his love is virtually useless because similar to a spectator, it watches and idolizes a subject, yet it is unable to react and must remain idle. The sonnet has a ababbcbccdcdee rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme allows for the sonnet to be divided into various different sections. At line 9, a volta occurs because the man transitions from talking about the despair he feels as a result of his love to blaming the woman for his despair. The man says, “She is no woman, but a senseless stone,” (14). The speaker of the sonnet transitions to describing the woman as a disheartened individual who causes pain and despair for others. The metaphor of comparing the woman to a stone furthermore shows the lack of emotion of the woman. By the end of the sonnet, the man reverts from blaming himself for his misery to blaming the woman for being cold-hearted.
Acquainted With The Night
ReplyDeleteby Robert Frost
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-by;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night
The poem I chose to analyze is “Acquainted With The Night” by Robert Frost. The poem uses a Spenserian Sonnet, which combines the rhyme scheme of one stanza to the next stanza and finishes off with a couplet. One difference between this poem and the Spenserian Sonnet is that it contains four stanzas, not three quatrains and only has three lines in each stanza instead of four. Now on to the analyzation of the poem: firstly, the title of the poem is being Acquainted with the night. When someone is acquainted with another person or an item they usually hold no sentimental value. For example, society calls those friends than you never talk to and only hang out with when you have no one else to hang out with acquaintances. This gives readers the feeling that the speaker is not best friends with the night, most likely because there is only 8 or so hours of darkness every day. In the first stanza, the speaker talks about walking a lot, which it is assumed this is done at night. Not many people have the courage to walk at night because it is filled with the dangers of society like the homeless, criminals and prostitutes. In this sonnet it is even filled with rain, which this rain is symbolic of returnal and renewal. Not only does the speaker walk out in rain, but also walks back after he has traveled somewhere, done something or just been left with his own thoughts. The point is, something about the speaker has changed. With the second stanza, the speaker talks about passing the night guard and not looking at him directly because he does not want to seem suspicious or he does not want to have to explain his purpose for walking at night. The first line of the third stanza, “I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet” is my favorite throughout the entire sonnet. The way it is worded makes it seem complex, but in reality all he is saying is that something drew his attention away from his nightly walk. The two next lines make readers think that either something disastrous has happened, like a crime, or someone is calling out to another walking the streets to come home. The interpretation is left to the reader. In the next stanza, readers are more positive that the cry was friendly because the speaker mentions it was not intended for him. The words “good-by” tell us that the speaker is sad the yell is not for him because he wishes someone cared for him to be walking late at night. The next two lines add more to the loneliness of the speaker with the words “unearthly height.” The speaker is describing the moon in the sky, which is majestic, yet also eerie because it is “unearthly.” The speaker is in a dreamlike state when on these walks where his mind wanders. The next line where the speaker mentions the time being “neither wrong nor right” is focusing on the fact that the moon is not reliable so the speaker cannot tell the time exactly. It also shows how the moon is contributing to the feeling of eeriness because walking out at night feels wrong to the speaker, but he has gotten accustomed to it over the years. The last line, the title of the poem, sums up the poem and now it is truly understood what being acquainted with the night truly means. The speaker enjoys his walks to get away from society, yet there is duality in the fact that he misses this society and is scared of the loneliness and creepiness he feels on these walks.
- Jordan, B. 2
Sonnet - To My Mother
ReplyDeleteBy Edgar Allan Poe
Because I feel that, in the heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of ‘mother’ —
Therefore by that sweet name I long have called you —
You, who are more than mother unto me,
And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you,
In setting my Virginia’s spirit free.
My mother — my own mother — who died early —
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew;
By that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.
This sonnet is addressed to Edgar Allan Poe's mother-in-law, Maria Clemm. He says that the word, "mother", is the most devoted of words, something that can be agreed upon even in Heaven by the angels. Maria has died and Poe is commemorating her death by praising her treatment of him and thanking her for raising his wonderful wife. It can be assumed that Poe favored Maria over his own mother and that he loved her dearly. In fact, he loved his wife so much that he dedicated her existence to that of her mother. This sonnet is technically about love, but not of a romantic nature.
This sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD ECEC FF. This must be a Spenserian sonnet because the rhyme scheme is blended in the second and third quatrain. The couplet at the end simply switches over from being about Maria and how much Poe loves his wife to his soul's devotion and how he loves them more than himself. It is a nice closing statement that wraps up the reasoning for the poem.
- S. Bahr, 7/8*
Love Is Not All
ReplyDeleteby Edna St. Vincent Millay
Love is not all: It is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain,
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
and rise and sink and rise and sink again.
Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath
nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
yet many a man is making friends with death
even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
pinned down by need and moaning for release
or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
or trade the memory of this night for food.
It may well be. I do not think I would.
“Love is not All,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, is one of fifty-two sonnets inspired by her part-time lover George Dillon. This sonnet can be classified as an English sonnet due to its ABAB CDCD EFEF rhyme part; however it does not end with a couplet. Even without the GG pattern at the end the last two lines still acts as closing statement and provides commentary on the previous three quatrains. A volta occurs in lines 13 when Millay shifts and relates her subject matter to her own relationships.
Millay conveys the message of her idea of realistic love in this sonnet. She is too aware of the world to be deceived to believe that love has supremacy over the real essential needs such as food, water, and shelter. While she accepts the truth she herself is infatuated with being in love. She states that love has a sometimes ever-lasting effect on life and can cause a man to “make friends with death” (7). She reflects on the situations needed for her to sell the love she does have: “It well may be that in a difficult hour, pinned down by need and moaning for release or nagged by want past resolution's power, I might be driven to sell your love for peace” (9-12.) She ends the sonnet related to how she started it: comparing love to life’s necessities. She casually writes she does not think she would trade love for the food if she needed it letting the reader know that the author herself is under the strains of love.
-Grabowski, H. 7/8
Silent Noon by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
ReplyDeleteYour hands lie open in the long fresh grass,--
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms
'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.
'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.
Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky:--
So this wing'd hour is dropt to us from above.
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
This close-companioned inarticulate hour
When twofold silence was the song of love
"Silent Noon" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti is the nineteenth sonnet in his Youth And Change Part 1 collection. This sonnet is a Petrarchan because it has fourteen lines and is divided into an octave and sestet. The meter is Iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is ABBAACCA DDEFFE. The poet addresses and praises his mistress.
This sonnet starts off with a lot of imagery by describing his lady and the land surrounding them in great detail. He uses stereotypical terms to describe her hands in line 2: "The finger-points look through like rosy blooms". The poet also employs an oxymoron in line 11: "So this wing'd hour is dropt to us from above". By saying that the hour is wing'd and yet it has been dropped from above creates the oxymoron. He is acknowledging that this peaceful hour in which they are together has been given to them from heaven. Overall the poet describes a moment where he is alone and in peace with his lady. The land around them seems to glow and together a song of love is sung by their blissful silence.
Galvan, E. 2nd
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
ReplyDeleteThou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 is clear and direct in what it tries to convey. Told from the perspective of a man deeply in love with a woman, the sonnet possesses a metaphor for the woman. The woman is a summer day. However, the woman does not have the qualities that make a summer day unbearable: “Sometime too hot in the eye of heaven shrines” (5). Summer’s heat is a disadvantage to a summer day, but to the narrator, the woman does not have that heat. This is a complement to the woman’s temperament. Furthermore, the narrator believes that the woman will never regress from being a summer day; she is “eternal” (9) and not even the personified death can end her beauty.
Written by Shakespeare himself, this is obviously a Shakespearean sonnet. Shapkespearean sonnets have specific qualities that give them their identity. As seen in Sonnet 18, there are fourteen lines with a rhyme scheme, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Iambic pentameter is present. The sonnet is divided into three quatrains, which give the sonnet direction. The first quatrain sets the stage for the sonnet. In Sonnet 18, the woman and the summer day metaphor are introduced. The second quatrain continues to build off of the first, giving reasons as to the flaws of a summer day. The third quatrain, complementing the woman, gives reason why the woman is superior to a summer day; the most important aspect is that she does not fade like a summer day. Sonnet 18, just like standard Shakespearean sonnets, ends with a couplet that states something profound. Sonnet 18’s couplet states the woman’s beauty will end once mankind no longer exists. Shakespearean sonnets have become extremely common, but each continues to present a unique perspective on love.
Srivastava R, 2
Dark Sonnet by Neil Gaiman
ReplyDeleteI don’t think I’ve been in love as such,
Although I liked a few folk pretty well.
Love must be vaster than my smiles or touch,
For brave men died and empires rose and fell
For love: girls followed boys to foreign lands
And men have followed women into Hell.
In plays and poems someone understands
There’s something makes us more than blood and bone
And more than biological demands.
For me, love’s like the wind, unseen, unknown.
I see the trees are bending where it’s been,
I know that it leaves wreckage where it’s blown.
I really don’t know what “I love you” means,
I think it means “Don’t leave me here alone.”
Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite contemporary writers, so I was thrilled when I typed his name along with the word “sonnet” into Google and found this one. I was, however, a little less thrilled over the challenge of identifying exactly what kind of sonnet it was. Gaiman is a bit of a rule-breaker and so the structure of this piece does not always match up with typical sonnet structures and rhyme schemes. After consideration, I’ve identified it as a variation of a Petrarchan sonnet.
In this sonnet, Gaiman takes a dark approach to love. From the outset of the piece, he identifies himself as someone who hasn’t experienced it, which allows him to view it objectively and as an outsider looking in. He discusses the destruction and ruin that love leaves in its wake through lines such as “empires rose and fell” and “it leaves wreckage where it’s blown.” He exposes the raw power of love as a chaotic force, which clashes with the way we usually interpret that power – as something pure and peaceful. Gaiman looks at love abstractly because he states it is more than “biological demand.” It has an element of the mystic and the magical to it. Though it isn’t tangible in the sense that it can be held or touched, love can be felt and leave marks on those it encounters. My favorite part of the sonnet is the ending, which proclaims that the desire for love is a desire for companionship as well as a rejection of the inherent isolation of our condition.
A typical Petrarchan sonnet is broken up into two parts: an octave and a seset. Gaiman’s sonnet conforms to this idea but deviates slightly; instead of eight lines followed by a six-line resolution, his piece consists of nine lines followed by a five-line resolution. A Volta occurs in line 10, when Gaiman begins, “For me, love’s like…” This serves as a transition because it shifts the sonnet away from broad statements to more personal observations, therefore splitting it into two separate parts. The rhyme scheme is as follows: ABAB CDCE CEFE GE. Gaiman takes a bit more liberty in his rhyme and so does not imitate perfectly the classic format. The sonnet does, however, open with the traditional ABAB – and the five-line resolution of the poem is a variation of rhyme built on the C D and E sounds. Lastly, the sonnet does utilize some iambic pentameter, as nearly every line is ten syllables and has a distinct beat.
Keller N 7/8
Sonnet XXIX
ReplyDeleteBy William Shakespeare
When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
This sonnet is about (I think, I could be wrong, for alas it is poetry) a man who looks at all of society around him and is unhappy because while they are wealthy he is not. He also is unhappy with his life because he is alone and by himself while the rest of society has someone to love. However, towards the end he says that the love was only there because the kings were wealthy, and he implies that he would rather have somebody love him for him instead of his money, so then he says he is glad he is forever alone. Obviously this sonnet is written in the Shakespearean form because it was written by Shakespeare. However, if I did not know the author I would have figured out that this poem is Shakespearean through other means. Such as looking at the rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme is ababcdcdefefgg, the rhyme scheme of an English sonnet. Also, each quatrain presents an idea, and builds the meaning of the sonnet, and then the couplet resolves it.
Anna Bunting 2nd
Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now,
ReplyDeleteNow while the world is bent my deeds to cross;
Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-loss:
Ah, do not, when my heart hath ’scaped this sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquered woe.
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposed overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their spite
But in the onset come; so shall I taste
At first the very worst of fortune’s might;
And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,
Compared with loss of thee will not seem so.
Sonnet 90 by William Shakespeare is a far cry from the sappy, love-riddled ones he had previously written. The poem is addressed to a woman who seems to have the intent to break his heart by deciding she does not love him. Shakespeare pleads with her to get it over with, “Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now.” This speaks to the heart break he believes he will endure if she is ever to hate or leave him. Shakespeare believes that losing her will make every other pain in his life seem insignificant,( lines 13-14).Despite not focusing on the romantic part of love, Sonnet 90 remains an English sonnet.
While many sonnets by Shakespeare focus on love, Sonnet 90 has a stronger focus of the loss of love and the heart break that may follow. Much like other sonnets written by Shakespeare, it has the structure of an English sonnet. It is written in Iambic pentameter while following an similar rhyme scheme to that of a traditional Shakespearean sonnet. However, there is some variation of rhyme towards the end. There are three quatrains with a separate couplet at the end which wraps up the intent of the sonnet.
M. McGregor 2nd
Those Winter Sundays
ReplyDeleteby Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?
From the beginning of the novel, the reader notices the subtle messages behind the different words. The first two lines explain the setting, stating, “Sundays too my father got up early/and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,” (1-2). This passage highlights the title while bringing up the question, “Why is the father working on Sunday?” Throughout the Bible, it is stated that Sunday is a day of rest, meaning that no work should be done throughout the day. Throughout the next few line, the reader sees the words “cracked” and “ached”, which is another connection to the title. Each word helps the reader visualize the setting and get a sense of what the charters are witnessing throughout the sonnet. As the reader moves on, it is noted that the father calls for his sons help, which the son is not very excited about. Towards the end of the sonnet it states, “Speaking indifferently to him / who had driven out the cold / and polished my good shoes as well” (10-12). The man has done a lot for the child, but the child has yet to realize the power of a “thank you”.
With Hayden’s sonnet, it is very obvious that there is no rhyme scheme. The structure of the piece is also very unique, with the text grouped together in one stanza. Although it is only one stanza, the text flows and moves along nicely from beginning to end. Hayden’s piece ends with a line that is profound which helps develop the text while bringing it to a soft closing. I feel that Hayden’s sonnet is indefinable, meaning that there is no rhyme scheme and not much structure to the piece. It has a standard fourteen lines, but is without any rhyme pattern.
Wasylko, G 7/8th
If I were fire, I'd burn the world away;
ReplyDeleteIf I were wind, I'd blow it down;
If I were water, I'd let it drown;
If I were God, I'd deep-six it today.
If I were Pope, what would make me gay?
To ransack every Christian town.
If I were emperor, what would make my day?
To see heads roll on the ground!
If I were death, I'd run down my father;
If I were life, I'd flee from him.
As for dear mama, she gets the same.
If I were Cecco, and that is my name,
I'd take the pretty young girls to screw
and leave the ugly old hags to you.
Sonnet [“If I were fire, I’d burn the world away”] by Paul Violi is an English translation of an Italian sonnet by Cecco Angiolieri in the Petrachian form. Violi uses the traditional abba rhyme scheme for the first four lines, however he does not continue it through the octave, but switches to abab. The last sestet ends with cdeeff. This being aoriginally Italian poem the rhyme scheme once translated to English is slightly different however. The repetition of “If I were” poses multiple theoretical phrases, leading up to the final true statement “If I were Cecco, and that is my name”. The overall tone of this poem is very cynical and satirical. Each line describes the destruction that Angiolieri would cause if he could. The lines about the Pope and emperor are very controversial, implying that the Pope and emperor are destructive rulers. This sonnet interested me because unlike most sonnets, it is not about love, rather it is more of a darker political statement.
Florek, E. 7/8
Love Is Not All
ReplyDeleteBy Edna St. Vincent Millay
Love is not all: It is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain,
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
and rise and sink and rise and sink again.
Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
pinned down by need and moaning for release
or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It may well be. I do not think I would.
Love Is Not All, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, takes the form of the Shakespearian Sonnet. The sonnet has 14 lines with an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme pattern, which allows it to be classified as Shakespearian. The unique rhyme scheme separates the sonnet into three distinct quatrains and the final couplet. In the first two quatrains, Millay gives a negative description of love. She writes, “Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath” (5). Contrary to many other authors who write highly of love, Millay says that love alone will not ever be enough. Readers understand that with only love, a person will remain unfulfilled. While Millay says that love cannot possibly be everything, she also notes that love must be present in some form in every life: “Yet many a man is making friends with death / even as I speak, for lack of love alone” (7-8). Millay is showing that love is necessary for everyone, and without it many men may be drawn towards death. The volta, or turn, of the sonnet occurs between lines 8 and 9. In the first two quatrains, Millay paints love in a negative light. From lines 9-14, however, she describes her own experience with love. She speaks about selling the love she has for another man in order to find peace in her life (12). The sonnet ends with Millay saying, “I do not think I would” (14). This final statement seems to contradict the beginning of the sonnet. Before the volta, Millay focuses on the problems that are associated with love, However, it becomes clear that she is not ready to give it up in her own life. The final line, however, brings uncertainty about how important her love is with the man. While she is telling herself that she could trade his love for peace, she is still unsure if that is truly how she feels. She says “I do not think,” which adds a level of uncertainty to her statement. Readers are left wondering how much she actually loves the one she is with.
- Ryan M. 2nd
Sonnets from the Portuguese 43: How Do I Love Thee?
ReplyDeleteBy Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun or candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old grief’s, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
The rhyme scheme for this sonnet is abbaabba/cdcdcd. The rhymed words group the poem together in an 8-line section and a 6-line section. The 8-line seems to be both an exposition of why the otherwise list- like poem exists, and several different ,somewhat clique expressions of how much the object of the author’s affection is loved. The 6-line take a different, much deeper approach to this love: It tells why the author loves this person so much; they lost faith in love as a child, and this person brought it back to them. It ends by saying the author will love this person to the end of time, even after both of them are dead, for the gift of being able to love again. The switch between these two passages is a definite volta. Though not written by Francesco Petrarch, I would say this is a Petrarchen sonnet because of the volta, only seen in this sonnet form, and the rhyme scheme.
When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
ReplyDeleteI all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Sonnet 29 by Shakespeare is about a man who feels no pride in who he is. He lacks comfort in himself and wishes to be more like other men. He views himself as an outcast who is talentless and hopeless, yet when he thinks about the woman who loves him, all his insecurities wither away. When Shakespeare says, “For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings” (Line 13), he means that knowing he is loved by this woman makes him feel like he is the wealthiest man in the world, in terms of both money and emotions. Before he thinks of the love he shares with this woman, he expresses, “I all alone beweep my outcast state” (Line 2), yet afterwards, he promises, “That then I scorn to change my state with kings” (Line 14). In the drastic transition between these two lines, he makes the realization that being loved makes him feel not only that he belongs where he is, but also that he is king of this place. Shakespeare teaches the lesson through Sonnet 29 that wealth is not measured in riches, but in love.
Based on the above analyses, as well as those that follow, this sonnet qualifies to be of Shakespearean type. This sonnet is 14 lines, as most are, and follows iambic pentameter as sonnets typically do. Shakespearean sonnets normally consist of three quatrains followed by a couplet, which accurately applies to Sonnet 29. The three quatrains act as the “intro” and “body;” each of the three focusing on a new point. The couplet acts as a conclusion, wrapping up the entire sonnet. All of the above rules apply to Sonnet 29, therefore qualifying it to be a Shakespearean sonnet.
Cruse S, 2
How Do I Love Thee?
ReplyDeleteby Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
This sonnet has the classic theme of a person’s love for another. What is different about this sonnet is that it is told from the perspective of a woman rather than a man. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a poet from the 1800s or the Romantic period where artists expressed their feelings freely. Browning writes about her husband to be, “I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise” (7-8). She speaks of the sincerity of her love, how it is already free and pure while people during this time wanted to their rights during and after the Industrial Revolution and turned away from their religion after the age of enlightenment. The love she feels for him is constant and passionate.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote this sonnet in Sonnets from the Portuguese where she used Petrarchan form. Her rhyme scheme is ABBAABBA for the octave. The sestet strays a bit from the Petrarchan form because CACDCD. The octave sets up the situation, describing the love the author has for her husband to be. The volta shows the change between the octave and sestet. The sestet gives the resolution that she will continue to love him for her entire life.
Hornung, A. 7/8
Sonnet 17 By William Shakespeare
ReplyDeleteWho will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were filled with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces, f
The age to come would say 'This poet lies;
Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.'
So should my papers, yellowed with their age,
Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be termed a poet's rage
And stretched metre of an antique song:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice, in it, and in my rhyme.
In Sonnet 17, William Shakespeare fears that his love and praise of the youth’s beauty will be considered untruthful and people will think that, “this poet lies” (line 7). The poet hopes that the man whom he admires will realize just how beautiful he thinks he is and that his words of appreciation will not be mistaken for mere flattery. The simile in line 10 compares lies to old men who boast about events that are not true just to obtain a positive reaction from others. Shakespeare also fears that readers will not believe his, “verse in time to come” (line 1).
This sonnet, written by William Shakespeare, is written in the Shakespearian or English style. Its rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, which is the common rhyme scheme of a Shakespearian sonnet. This poem is written in iambic pentameter and contains three quatrains. In the first quatrain the problem, that the poet’s description of the man is false, is presented. The second quatrain expands upon the idea that a poet’s words may not always be regarded as truthful. The third quatrain expresses the poet’s fear that the man’s beauty downplayed by, “a poet’s rage” (line 11). The final couplet presents a summary of the previous twelve lines and the poet’s final commentary. He urges the young man to marry and have a child, so that his beauty will be everlasting.
Judele C, 2nd
To Fanny
ReplyDeleteJohn Keats (1795-1821)
I cry your mercy–pity–love!–aye, love!
Merciful love that tantalizes not,
One-thoughted, never-wandering, guileless love,
Unmasked, and being seen–without a blot!
O! let me have thee whole,–all–all–be mine!
That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest
Of love, your kiss,–those hands, those eyes divine,
That warm, white, lucent, million-pleasured breast,–
Yourself–your soul–in pity give me all.
Withhold no atom’s atom or I die,
Or living on perhaps, your wretched thrall,
Forget, in the mist of idle misery,
Life’s purposes,–the palate of my mind
Losing its gist, and my ambition blind!
The sonnet above is the one I chose for this blog. After reading it, the tone is weak and like the author is begging (which is a continuous tone found in most sonnets). The author is pleading to have her be his. He makes the sonnet seem rather pitiful, begging to make the woman his forever. And as usual, the imagery the poet uses is descriptive only to the woman's physical features rather than her personality or inner details. An example is "That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest...", which obviously only refers to the woman's physical appearance. The poet is very dramatic in this poem, and is basically saying that without her, he will be forever blind. Which in reality, is not very true.
Reva 7/8
Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser
ReplyDeleteOne day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But the waves came and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
‘Vain man,’ said she, ‘that dost in vain assay
A moral thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise.’
‘Not so,’ quod I, ‘let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.’
Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser, a British poet in the 1500’s, is one of a sequence of sonnets called Amoretti, and is one of his most famous sonnets. In the sonnet, he and the woman he is lovesick for seem to take a trip to the beach, where he writes her name in the sand to show his love for her. No matter how many times he writes her name, however, the waves of the ocean continuously come up to wash it away. Despite the man’s efforts, his lady reprimands him for trying to make their love immortal, as it is obviously not meant to be. The man, however, tells her not to worry because he will make their love last through his poetry and it will never die.
This can be characterized as a Spenserian sonnet, with a rhyme scheme of ABABBCBCCDCDEE. This is Spenserian because it is structured with three quatrains and ends with a couplet, with the correct rhyme scheme of a Spenserian sonnet. This is distinctively a sonnet because not only can it be successfully characterized as a type of sonnet with the correct rhyme scheme, but it is also 14 lines and is written about love, one of the most prominent themes of sonnets. The last two lines that end in a couplet really stuck out to me because they seem to conclude the poem very powerfully and nicely, which is the whole point of having the couplet in the end. The poem also portrays some qualities of iambic pentameter because most of its lines are 10 syllables, so the poem has a prominent beat throughout its entirety. This specific sonnet by Edmund Spenser is a very well written, distinguished sonnet that portrays love in a unique way.
Shaniuk, B 7/8
sonnet 145-shakespeare
ReplyDeleteThose lips that Love's own hand did make,
Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate',
To me that languished for her sake:
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet,
Was used in giving gentle doom:
And taught it thus anew to greet:
'I hate' she altered with an end,
That followed it as gentle day,
Doth follow night who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away.
'I hate', from hate away she threw,
And saved my life saying 'not you'.
This sonnet by Shakespeare conveys a unique message. I believeThis is saying that the women in the poem says she hates God. My reasoning behind this comes from the capitalization of “Love,” and mentioning love as a person. God and Jesus are names that are always capitalized, but when referring to either of these figures as a he, then “He” is always capitalized as well. I also made this conclusion by the ending. Shakespeare says how she saved his life by not saying she hated him, because it would have killed his heart. Instead, she killed herself and was sentenced to hell, which is also stated in a line shortly above. This sonnet starts off with a rhyme scheme that carries through the sonnet. Every other line rhymes. The only exception comes in the last two lines, which rhyme with each other. The sonnet is about love, a typical sonnet topic. In conclusion the sonnet is or can be a mixed message taken to be not about religious things, but from my knowledge and the references and also capitalization used, I came to the conclusion that this women has rejected the love of God.
-Camille
He ate some hot sauce and blueberry pies,
ReplyDeleteThen laid around and moaned out loud in pain.
I worried in my heart of his demise,
And tried to scrub the purple carpet stain.
He slowly came around and waddled slow,
His belly wide and nearly to the floor.
So sad to see my hungry doggy grow
So portly wide, he barely fit his door.
He survived, but still he is more than stout.
I’ve learned. Next time I’ll take the garbage out!
by Denise Rodgers
After Turkey Day by Denise Rodgers has a humorous tone. It talks about a lazy owner not throwing the garbage away, and thus having their dog get into it and eat the trashy leftovers. From this, problems occured such as him becoming fat and barely fitting through the door, moaning in pain, and staining the carpet with his throw up. Most sonnets are about love and tragedy and it was refreshing to hear a light funny one. Rodgers organized his poem in an ABAB rhyme scheme, also known as a binary format.
Asturi V 7/8
The New Colossus- Emma Lazarus
ReplyDeleteNot like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she
With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'
This sonnet is very important to the United States. These fourteen lines are today placed on the Statue of Liberty, where they have resided since 1903. Most sonnets refer to love or women just as this one does. Lazarus took the idea of lady liberty and transformed her as a symbol for America that all can see. Although there is fourteen lines, we cannot just assume it is a sonnet. This text must fit all credentials to be classified as a sonnet.This sonnet follows an iambic pentameter, containing 10 syllables in each line. The rhyme scheme however, is a tell-tale. This text follows ABBA ABBA CDCDCD format. By this rhyme scheme, this text is also classified as a Petrarchan sonnet. This Petrarchan sonnet also portrays an idea, the idea being lady liberty, in the octave. Then in the sestet it shows the text as if it were lady liberty speaking. These two ideas being merged into the text helps readers to see the Petrarchan sonnet.
Cika, M 2
Sonnet 25- Shakespeare
ReplyDeleteLet those who are in favour with their stars,
Of public honour and proud titles boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars,
Unlook'd for joy in that I honour most.
Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread
But as the marigold at the sun's eye;
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famoused for worth,
After a thousand victories once foil'd,
Is from the book of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd:
Then happy I, that love and am beloved
Where I may not remove nor be removed.
This Shakespearean sonnet is about how love to the speaker is irreversible while other such ideas drastically change in an instance. The speaker says, "The painful warrior famoused for worth,
After a thousand victories once foil'd,
Is from the book of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd"(9-12). So while this warrior had all these great victories, one defeat disrupted his reputation and is now not as honorable as he was. He is forgotten. The same with the woman described as "at a frown they in their glory die"(8). All this beauty and one small frown destroys their reputation and honor. The whole purpose is to show that the love he has with another can not change due to the slightest of change or downfall.
This Shakespearean sonnet is 14 lines with quattrains. There are 4 separate sections with the scheme of abab cdcd efef gg which end in a couplet. Except for two lines in the sonnet, it follows this scheme. It is in an iambic pentameter with stressed and unstressed syllables. Ten per line. The first three quattrains describe the different points being made about the large failures from small actions. At the end, in the couplet, the complete point trying to be made is that love can not be torn apart by silly mistakes or small events that occur. All parts of a Shakespearean sonnet.
Sarah Palmer 7/8
Hereafter by George Romanes
ReplyDeleteWhen I look back upon my childish years,
And think how little then I thought at all,
Sometimes to me it now almost appears,
So great the change has been, 'twere but a small
Increase of change that might transform a man
Into a spirit, standing at the throne
Of God, to see in full the mighty plan
Divine, and know as also he is known.
For why should thus so vast a growth have been,
Which all but tops the verge of earthly skies,
If, at the end, all that a man hath seen
Be blotted out before his closing eyes?
So were it better still a child to be,
And shout young laughter through a world of glee.
The sonnet I chose was Hereafter by George Romanes, describes the innocence of youth while following an ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme. Describing a typical innocent feeling, Romanes says, “and think how little then I thought at all,” the way teenagers do now. This piece was a Shakespearean sonnet, following the 3 quatrains and a couplet rule. The body and intro of this piece began off at youth and explained the wisdom earned through aging that “transforms a man.” These men gain spirit, and knowledge, also respect. They become well known and thoughtful, and if they do not share this knowledge with the world they serve little to no purpose. Man fears showing no purpose, so the closing couplet says, “and shout young laughter through a world of glee,” in the last line explaining that it is better to remain young and ignorant than to waste your worth.
Mewhinney, M 2
Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda:
ReplyDeleteI do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way than this:
where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
This poem, I think, is beautiful despite its dark and twisted nature. Neruda describes his love as covetous and dark, yet incredibly intimate. His love is not like a burning passion(2), but is hidden in the place “between the shadow and the soul” (4). The first 8 lines of the poem are very dark and harsh, but the last 6 are soft and gentle. The narrator exposes his emotions in a struggle to put a definition to his love. He fails, ultimately, to confine his love to just a few words, and instead creates the incredibly romantic and slightly possessive sentiment that love is not passion for another, but is knowing another soul as your own self and humbling yourself to admit it.
Neruda’s poem follows the Petrarchan form of sonnets in that it is divided into and 8-line introduction and a 6-line resolution. The first 8 lines discuss the narrator’s love in dark but delicate terms that leave something to be desired- as if he cannot quite find the words. The last 6 lines address the narrator’s love directly and starkly. He is not trying to describe his love any longer but is throwing it at the woman. Though Neruda’s sonnet does not rhyme, it still follows the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet and many of the Petrarchan love conventions.
Though the woman that the narrator addresses has no name, he speaks directly to her, using stereotypical terms to describe his love for her, such as the metaphor of flowers. The narrator uses the subjective to describe his love- saying that though he doesn’t know intuitively (“how, or when, or from where” (9)) he loves her, he still adores her as a “hidden flower”.
Jankovsky A. 7-8*
An Echo From Willow-wood by Christina Dante Rossetti
ReplyDeleteTwo gazed into a pool, he gazed and she,
Not hand in hand, yet heart in heart, I think,
Pale and reluctant on the water's brink
As on the brink of parting which must be.
Each eyed the other's aspect, she and he,
Each felt one hungering heart leap up and sink,
Each tasted bitterness which both must drink,
There on the brink of life's dividing sea.
Lilies upon the surface, deep below
Two wistful faces craving each for each,
Resolute and reluctant without speech: —
A sudden ripple made the faces flow
One moment joined, to vanish out of reach:
So those hearts joined, and ah! were parted so.
This sonnet addresses the theme of love, like most sonnets. A male and female who are in love are about to part. They are staring into water and are about to part. Rossetti conveys the sad emotions two people feel when they have to leave their significant other. The sonnet contains two parts: the octave and the sestet. The octave is made up from the first 8 lines, where the rhyme scheme is abbaabba. The sestet is made up from the last 6 lines, where the rhyme scheme is cddcdc.
This sonnet contains fourteen lines, which contain 2 full sentences. The Volta, a switch between the octave and sestet, occurs after the first sentence. In the first part of the sonnet, in the octave, Rossetti portrays two people who are on the verge of leaving one another. Repetition of the word ‘brink’ is used to show that these two lovers are on the verge of some impactful event. Although “each one felt one hungering heart leap up and sink,” they do not show their emotion. Their faces remain calm and they are forced to swallow their emotions. They also do not look at one another, resorting to stare at each other’s reflections in the water.
The octave usually sets up the problem, and this is what Rossetti does. The two lovers are introduced and their situation is described. The sestet builds towards the resolution. The resolution in Rossetti’s sonnet is not cheerful. Rossetti writes, “A sudden ripple made the faces flow…So these hearts joined, and ah! were parted so” (12-14). The couple is forced to part at the end of the sonnet, but, nevertheless, it is ended.
Patel, D 2
the trick of finding what you didn’t lose by e. e. cummings
ReplyDeletethe trick of finding what you didn’t lose
(existing’s tricky:but to live’s a gift)
the teachable imposture of always
arriving at the place you never left
(and i refer to thinking)rests upon
a dismal misconception;namely that
some neither ape nor angel called a man
is measured by his quote eye cue unquote.
Much better than which,every woman who’s
(despite the ultramachinations of
some loveless infraworld)a woman knows;
and certain men quite possibly may have
shal we say guessed?”we shall” quoth gifted she:
and played the hostess to my morethanme
“the trick of finding what you didn’t lose” by e. e. cummings is a sonnet I can’t seem to put into a category. It does not have a solid rhyme scheme until the last two lines which create a couplet. I don’t even know if this sonnet follows a pattern at all. E. E. Cummings is a strange poet, he kinda sets his own rules. I picked this sonnet because of the second line “(existing’s tricky:but to live’s a gift). I might not understand the rest of the poem, but that line really stuck out to me, he is saying that just being alive can be a struggle, but living is a gift. The rest of the poem, I believe, talks about how we try to change without a clear understanding of what we are changing into. When he says, “arriving at a place you never left” it’s a weird cliche yet strong contradiction, that made me think. How do you arrive somewhere you never left? Is the subject discovering something about themselves, maybe changing on the inside while never physically leaving, maybe it’s a dream. The tone of the poem is factual, as if he if just telling the reader the facts, telling us how it is. E. E. Cummings has such a unique style of poetry, I feel like I’d need to take a whole class on his poetry to understand it.
Cali P 7/8
A Dream Pang
ReplyDeleteI had withdrawn in forest, and my song
Was swallowed up in leaves that blew alway,
And to the forest edge you came one day
(This was my dream) and looked and pondered long,
But did not enter, though the wish was strong:
You shook your pensive head as who should say,
'I dare not--too far in his footsteps stray--
He must seek me would he undo the wrong.'
Not far, but near, I stood and saw it all
Behind low boughs the trees let down outside;
And the sweet pang it cost me not to call
And tell you that I saw does still abide,
But 'tis not true that thus I dwelt aloof,
For the wood wakes, and you are here for proof.
In these 14 lines, acclaimed poet Robert Frost describes a regretful situation in a sonnet. The pattern of the sonnet is AABBCCBBCDEDEFF though it doesn't follow the format exactly the style of the rhyme scheme is the closest to Spenserian. The sonnet talks on the idea of love from a perspective of regret, and reflection. For example, "it cost me not to call" (11). as if the poet was in substantial regret for not taking the opportunity to do something or get to know the person he is talking about in the sonnet. The two paragraphs contrast little, for the whole sonnet flows nicely together creating a serene mood for the reader. The sonnet follows iambic pentameter with 10 syllables per line of the 14 lines of the poem.
Westphal 2nd
A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted
ReplyDeleteHast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.
Initially, I choose this sonnet at a whim because I do not normally have sonnets on file, however, upon reading it, I enjoyed its controversy, perversion and conspiracy. As an overview, the poem is about Shakespeare addressing his young, male love. He states how he is as beautiful as a woman (4-5), but was just made with the wrong parts (11-12), however Shakespeare states that the women can keep that part as long as he can keep his love (13). Overall, I enjoy the piece I selected because it is substantially different than other Shakespeare works, plus for the time period it is extraordinarily interesting, really capitalizing on a unorthodox portion of Shakespeare’s existence. However, I find it innovative and interesting, and I really think it adds a lot of diversity to Shakespeare’s repertoire.
To continue, it is important to analyze the sonnet. So, obviously, based on the writer, this follows the Shakespearean style of sonnet. Thus, meaning it has a general abab rhyme pattern. Additionally, it follows the 4 lines in a stanza, abab rhyme scheme, and then in 3 quatrains of abab a rhyming couplet occurs to end the piece. In addition to the rhyming, the piece also follows iambic pentameter. Meaning that there are 10-11 syllables per line, with equal amounts of stressed and unstressed syllables. With the structure in mind, we can begin to analyze the piece. The first two lines talk about how this man, directly speaking two him, is as beautiful as a woman, without make-up (4), and how he is a man of Shakespeare’s passions. Additionally, he continues on to say that this man can bring the attractions of men and women alike (7-8). Lastly, the piece closes by explaining how mother-nature gave him unnecessary “parts” and how he can give those to the women, as long as Shakespeare has his love (11-13). Overall, it is through the rhyming, contrasting lines, and carefully selected diction that makes the impact of Shakespeare’s words and hidden connotations all the more prominent. It is through alternating lines that Shakespeare identifies a trait of the man, and then explains in an almost defensive manner, how that is okay to him. Overall, it is an interesting piece that plays a pivotal role in who we believe Shakespeare to be.
Megan Lear
Sonnet 12 by William Shakespeare:
ReplyDeleteWhen I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime
And sable curls, all silvered o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves,
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow;
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
This sonnet is an English styled sonnet. With the “ABABCDCD…GG” style. The sonnet talks about the way time eventually reaches everything in life and how it kills everything in the end. No mortal thing on earth is safe from time. It’s very simple of how Shakespeare talks about the flowers and how nature is killed, “nothing ‘gainst Time’s scythe,” (Shakespeare Line 13). This is good personification, allowing time to be like a farmer. Time is simply doing its job.
This sonnet is a classical English styled sonnet due to its rhyme sequence from the beginning to the end. In the English sonnet, the rhyme sequence is very simple. The rhyme goes for every other line within the sonnet, until the very last two lines. From that point the reader sees the last words of the last two lines rhyme and end the sonnet altogether. In this sonnet, the words “defence” and “hence” rhyme well together.
Turnea, D 2nd Period
Sonnet 94 by Shakespeare
ReplyDeleteThey that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces
And husband nature’s riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
The sonnet above describes an individual in a position of power that is restrained in its use; they often opt in the favor of restraint rather than taking action. This is exhibited by, "they that have pow’r to hurt" and “do not do the thing they most do show”. this shows the individuals power and in turn, they're choice not to use it. The point of this poem is that the behavior of a person determines they're worth. The description of the flower solidifies this as it shows that while the flower may not recognize its self worth, it is loved by others. However, if the power becomes ill or less dignified, then a lowly weed that stays true to itself is above it. This is solidified by the lines, "For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds." By this shakespeare means to say that while a flower is initially better than the weed, if it tarnishes its beauty then a weed, though initially considered lowly, is better. This is because our deeds define us rather than what our initial identities are.
-Harris, S 2*
November
ReplyDeleteWilliam Cullen Bryant
Yet one smile more, departing, distant sun!
One mellow smile through the soft vapory air,
Ere, o'er the frozen earth, the loud winds run,
Or snows are sifted o'er the meadows bare.
One smile on the brown hills and naked trees,
And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast,
And the blue gentian-flower, that, in the breeze,
Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last.
Yet a few sunny days, in which the bee
Shall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way,
The cricket chirp upon the russet lea,
And man delight to linger in thy ray.
Yet one rich smile, and we will try to bear
The piercing winter frost, and winds, and darkened air.
The sonnent "November" by William Cullen Bryant is a Shakespearian sonnet, and is seen following the proper rhyme scheme. Three quatrains exist and each has a specific idea that is related to the other. The quatrains all relate to the central theme of the transitions into winter. the sonnet is modern because the primary focus is not on love but rather on the change in seasons, from the ending of summer to the beginning of winter and is symbolic of something coming to an end.
Supina, R. 2
On His Blindness by: John Milton
ReplyDeleteWhen I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chide,
Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,
I fondly ask; But patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
Bar his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and waite.
At first glance, John Milton’s On His Blindness seems confusing and pedantic. However, when one thoroughly examines the poem, the sonnet’s meaning manifests. It is about a man who loses his sight (which is also a common archetype as we talked about in class). Within the first eight lines he followed an ABBAABBA rhyme structure where he discusses that he feels with his loss of sight he can no longer service God. For the last six lines (which follows a CDECDE rhyme scheme) he explains as to how he came to the realization that there are others working for God and without his sight he has nothing to do but sit and rest, which he then feels is not necessarily bad. Between the eighth and ninth lines, there is a switch where he addresses his problem to find a solution. This could be identified as a volva. Due to the structure of this sonnet, I feel as though it is a Petrarchan sonnet. Though it does not address a love story, it takes an internal conflict and finds a solution. It is a Petrarchan sonnet, but is not a Petrarchan love convention. Altogether, I felt as though there is much more to this poem than meets the surface.
-Kett J 2
Sonnet 105: Shakespeare
ReplyDeleteLet not my love be called idolatry,
Nor my beloved as an idol show,
Since all alike my songs and praises be
To one, of one, still such, and ever so.
Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind,
Still constant in a wondrous excellence;
Therefore my verse to constancy confin'd,
One thing expressing, leaves out difference.
Fair, kind, and true, is all my argument,
Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words;
And in this change is my invention spent,
Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords.
Fair, kind, and true, have often liv'd alone,
Which three, till now, never kept seat in one.
Unlike many Shakespearean sonnets, this sonnet appears to be a sonnet that is not about a yearning lover. When examining this sonnet, one may notice that it is about an individual that has to defend themselves against a legal charge. He idolizes his friend, and attempts to emulate the qualities that his friend possesses. This sonnet has an ABABAB rhyme scheme throughout most of the piece, which is a common rhyme scheme within Shakespearean sonnets. Even though this sonnet does not profess its love to an unknown, unreachable lover, it still discusses an afflicted soul seeking solace. Overall, I liked this sonnet because it does not follow the typical theme of a man seeking love.
Vanished Years by Helena Coleman
ReplyDeleteShe sitteth in the sunshine, old and grey,
Her faded kerchief crossed upon her breast,
Her withered form in sober colors dressed,
Her thoughts fixed ever on the Far-away;
She scarcely sees the children at their play,
But looks beyond them to the crimsoning West
And still beyond, where everlasting rest
Remains to close and crown her little day.
But on her tranquil and unconscious face,
In lines engraved by joy no less than tears,
The story of her pilgrimage we trace,
For Youth, quick-flying, left his dearer part,
And all the fragrance of the vanished years,
Imperishable, lies within her heart.
This poem by Helena Coleman is very clearly about a woman reminiscing on her life. She sits and thinks about what was and how close her life is to its end. Despite the somber tone to this poem, the author chooses to use vivid colors like crimson, and heightened vocabulary, like the verb crown, to describe what it is that the woman is seeing. Its rhyme scene follows the pattern, ABBA ACCA DEFDE. This most closely resembles the Italian Sonnet's rhyme scheme. In the octave, the author describes the setting in which the woman in the poem is doing her reminiscing, and the sestet at the end reinforces the the mood and tone of the poem.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIf I were fire, I'd burn the world away;
ReplyDeleteIf I were wind, I'd blow it down;
If I were water, I'd let it drown;
If I were God, I'd deep-six it today.
If I were Pope, what would make me gay?
To ransack every Christian town.
If I were emperor, what would make my day?
To see heads roll on the ground!
If I were death, I'd run down my father;
If I were life, I'd flee from him.
As for dear mama, she gets the same.
If I were Cecco, and that is my name,
I'd take the pretty young girls to screw
and leave the ugly old hags to you.
Sonnet “If I were fire, I’d burn the world away” by Paul Violi is translated from an Italian sonnet by Cecco Angiolieri. Violi uses abba rhyme scheme for the first four lines but it changes to abab. The last sestet is cdeeff. Obviously because it was translated from Italian the rhyme scheme differs in that language.
The sonnet has a very cynical and at times sarcastic tone. It shows a negative view on the emperor and pope at the time, which is controversial. The writer believes that they are corrupt and believe that violence is the answer. While many sonnets are about love this one shows the writers opinion on how he believes that our rulers are violent and it makes them happy to strike fear into their people.
Sonnet 132 by William Shakespeare
ReplyDeleteThine eyes I love, and they as pitying me,
Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain,
Have put on black, and loving mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.
And truly not the morning sun of heaven
Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east,
Nor that full star that ushers in the even
Doth half that glory to the sober west
As those two mourning eyes become thy face:
O let it then as well beseem thy heart
To mourn for me since mourning doth thee grace,
And suit thy pity like in every part.
Then will I swear beauty herself is black,
And all they foul that thy complexion lack.
This sonnet seems to be about the speaker, a man, that finds a woman beautiful and loves her for her eyes that pity him while distaining him. He loves her dark looks and nothing that has light, such as the sun and “that full star” (line 7) have as much beauty as the darkness that accompanies her looks. The woman that he loves “torment[s] [him] with distain” (line 2), showing that the woman does not return his feelings of love; yet her eyes pity him. The combination of these leads him to finding her intriguing and make him find her even more beautiful and irresistible. This leads him to loving her dark features and attitude towards him and those who do not possess these looks are ugly to him and he scorns. This can be seen in lines thirteen through fourteen when the speaker says, “Then I will swear beauty herself is black, / And all they foul that thy complexion lack.” The poem has iambic pentameter and a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG, which is the typical structure of an English or Shakespearean sonnet. Seeing as this is also a sonnet written by Shakespeare, the poem is definitely of the English sonnet type.
-C. Lenhoff 2nd period
Emma Lazarus' 'The New Colossus'
ReplyDeleteNot like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she
With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'
This is rather famous poem, stamped on the base of the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island in New York. This is a very classic and technical example of a Petrarchan sonnet. It is the traditional 14 lines and follows the very strict ‘abbaabba’ rhyme scheme, followed by ‘cdcdcd.’ Most significantly though, is the presence of a volta, which in Italian means ‘turn.’ The first eight lines introduce the idea, in the case it describes the Statue against the sky. In contrast to this, the last six lines are from the perspective of the statue herself, stating: “'Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.’” It introduces a new viewpoint, allowing the Statue to speak.
- Angie G. 2*
Sonnet 62
ReplyDeleteIs it thy will, thy image should keep open
My heavy eyelids to the weary night?
Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,
While shadows like to thee do mock my sight?
Is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee
So far from home into my deeds to pry,
To find out shames and idle hours in me,
The scope and tenor of thy jealousy?
O, no! thy love, though much, is not so great:
It is my love that keeps mine eye awake:
Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat,
To play the watchman ever for thy sake:
For thee watch I, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere,
From me far off, with others all too near.
This sonnet by Shakespeare is a Shakespearean style sonnet follows the ABAB CDCD EFEF GG with varying stanzas. Even Shakespeare who started the English sonnets was not able to follow all the criteria for his own sonnet. His sonnet however, deals with one of the most common themes of sonnets, which is love. This sonnet though throws a twist it talks about the burden that comes with love. Not every relationship is perfect and a lot of relationships are unhealthy. If you read the poem in reverse it seems to make more sense. At first the poem seems to be that the lover sends out spies but in the end we see that it is the speaker that stays up late at night worrying about what he is lover is doing. At the end the reader is left to imply that both lovers are doing the same thing. Shakespeare is trying to show the reader that while on the surface love may seem great deep down there is many issues. Love takes work and sometimes it is just not meant to be.
Sansone A 2nd
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 88
ReplyDeleteWhen thou shalt be disposed to set me light,
And place my merit in the eye of scorn,
Upon thy side, against myself I'll fight,
And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn.
With mine own weakness being best acquainted,
Upon thy part I can set down a story
Of faults concealed, wherein I am attainted;
That thou in losing me shalt win much glory:
And I by this will be a gainer too;
For bending all my loving thoughts on thee,
The injuries that to myself I do,
Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me.
Such is my love, to thee I so belong,
That for thy right, myself will bear all wrong.
In this sonnet we see the obvious theme of love. Although it is obvious given the title, this Shakespearean sonnet does follow his rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. The first section makes the point about fighting to be with her. The poet promises to protect the youth of his own love as we discussed in class. He is promising her that he will fight for her to keep her. He also takes no credit of poetic merit when he says “And place my merit in the eye of scorn” (line 2). He devotes himself to her and says, “Such is my love, to thee I so belong” (line 13). Through this we can analyze that the poet seems to be apologizing to his love and wants to prove to her that he is worthy of her love and so in the end he promises this so that she will forgive him.
Dame E 2*
I Chose Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18
ReplyDeleteShall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
This sonnet is a Shakespearean sonnet because it has three stanzas and ends with a couplet. Ababcdcdefefgg. The poet compares his love to the beauty of a summer’s day. The poet acknowledges that there are points of summer where the sun may be to hot or not present at all because it is hiding behind the clouds just as the beauty of the girl he discusses may not always be eternal. However, he says, “When in eternal lines to time thou growest.” This shows that because he has created this poem about her, her beauty will live on forever because as long as there are people on the earth they will continue to read the poem making the beauty of the poets love everlasting.
Ramsumair 7/8
Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare
ReplyDeleteThat time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 depicts a man who is almost “in the winter” of his life, or very near the end. The “yellow leaves” (2) are a symbol of autumn, which is the season that precedes winter, further justifying that the narrator is approaching his death. The first 12 lines draw a picture for the reader of a cold fall evening, in which the narrator is preparing for his death. Shakespeare writes, “In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire/…As the death-bed whereon it must expire” (9-11). This shows that his fire is being extinguished, which heavily symbolizes death. The last two lines are a plea from the narrator to another, telling him/her to live their life to the fullest before their flames are extinguished. The theme of this sonnet can be described as “carpe diem,” or “seize the day.” Shakespeare is telling his audience to seize the day before the winter comes to claim them.
Written by Shakespeare, this sonnet is obviously Shakespearian. However, it is clear that it is Shakespearian, even if his name were not pasted onto it. It is divided into 3 quatrains (equaling 12 lines) and a 2-line couplet at the end, in which the author changes the entire meaning of the sonnet. If the couplet were deleted, the sonnet would have a dismal, dreary tone; however, with it in place, the reader sees the plea to live life to the fullest. The rhyme scheme fits with Shakespearian sonnets: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. However, unlike most Shakespearian sonnets, it is not about love; rather, it focuses on living life while you can.
-Dushek, K 2˚
Yes, faith can lift a mountain from its base!
ReplyDeleteYes, faith can turn a river off its course;
Yes, faith can win an impossible race!
Yes, faith can calm a lion as he roars!
Sure, faith can do impossible a thing!
Sure, faith can hold a marriage till the end!
Sure, faith can well a happy ending bring!
Sure, faith can truly iron bars too bend!
True faith can make a friendship very strong!
True faith unites two lovers tie the knot!
True faith can make miles look like one furlong!
True faith can win a war although ill-fought!
None can afford to lose faith since their birth,
And faith in God is what we need on earth.
By Dr. John Celes.
Faith is instilling trust in someone or something. Celes emphasizes the importance of faith in his above sonnet titled “True Faith.” This poem is written in the standard Shakespearian sonnet form, following the rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The message of this poem is pretty straight-forward: with faith, anything is possible. Complete trust will provide a sense of confidence that is much needed here on earth. Confidence in ourselves, and also confidence in how others are living. Faith will reroute nature, strengthen relations among friends and foes, alike; faith will shorten the journey, win wars. Faith will provide hope and trust. Faith will do the impossible: it will save us all.
-K. Brav 7/8*
'The New Colossus' by Emma Lazarus
ReplyDelete'Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she
With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'
The poem ‘The New Colossus’ by Emma Lazarus follows the distinctive length of the Italian sonnet, which is fourteen lines. This leads to the classic Italian rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA in the Octave and CDCDCD in the Sestet. This rhyme scheme alone is characteristic of the Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet. But to further reinforce that ‘The New Colossus’ has a Volta, which is characteristic of the Italian sonnet as well. The Volta occurs in the break between the first eight, and the last six lines: the first eight lines offer a colorful image of the Statue of Liberty, while the final six lines give the reader a new view in the sonnet by allowing the Statue to literally speak. The sonnet as a whole contrasts the Statue of Liberty with the Colossus of Rhodes. The flow that the Italian sonnet provides enhances the message that Lazarus is trying to convey, and is a testimony to the power the Italian sonnet can provide.
Bruggeman, J 7/8th
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ReplyDeleteDo not stand at my grave and weep
ReplyDeleteby Mary Elizabeth Frye
Do not stand at my grave and weep:
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starshine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry:
I am not there; I did not die.
In Mary Elizabeth Frye’s poem “Do not stand at my grave and weep”, it is most famously known when grieving for a loved one. She explains with a AABBAABB rhyme scheme that when she passes, do not stand at her grave and weep for her because she simply is not there. She is in the wind that blows, the rain that falls, and the stars that shine. She is everywhere, but her grave. Including metaphors such as ”diamond glints on snow”, “sun on ripened grain”, and “gentle autumn rain” (lines 4-6) she uses nature to describe that she is still around and can be found everywhere in nature, that never really died. She’s still around you everywhere they go. With the nature related metaphors, Frye sets up the imagery of the poem to provide a soft and nurturing scene to create a loving and relaxed mood with each couplet. The octave is noticeable when bringing the point to the reader to not grieve for her at her grave, that she is everywhere and did not die, hence can be identified as an Italian sonnet. Coming full circle at the end when stating “Do not stand at my grave and cry:/I am not there; I did not die.” (Lines 11-12) gives comfort to the reader and gains a emotional response from the reader.
S. Güt 7/8
SONNET 129
ReplyDeleteThe expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
This poem conveys the idea of sexual desire or lust in the state of longing, fulfillment, and in memory. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker describes the action, as it exists, is an "expense of spirit in a waste of shame." He then uses the rest of the first quatrain to characterizing lust as it exists "till action". In the second quatrain, the speaker jumps between longing, fulfillment, and memory. No sooner is lust "enjoyed" than it is "despised." When lust is longing, the fulfillment of that longing is hunted "past reason" but as soon as it is achieved, it becomes shameful, and is hated "past reason.". In the third quatrain, then, the speaker says that lust is mad in all three of its forms: in pursuit and possession, it is mad, and in memory, consummation, and longing.
This poem is an example of Shakespearean form, fitting given that he is the one that made the form most prominent, if not invented it. This is supported by the rhyme scheme and flexibility of the poem. It contains twelve longs and has the rhyme scheme of ababcdcdefefgg. This sonnet is of the topic of love, but the more lustful a and possessive side of it. He places the turn of the sonnet in line 9.
-Javorsky, R 2*
Sonnet 84
ReplyDeleteWilliam Shakespeare
Who is it that says most, which can say more
Than this rich praise, that you alone are you—
In whose conf'ne immurèd is the store
Which should example where your equal grew?
Lean penury within that pen doth dwell
That to his subject lends not some small glory.
But he that writes of you, if he can tell
That you are you, so dignifies his story.
Let him but copy what in you is writ,
Not making worse what nature made so clear,
And such a counterpart shall fame his wit,
Making his style admired everywhere.
You to your beauteous blessings add a curse,
Being fond on praise, which makes your praises worse.
In this sonnet that Shakespeare wrote he is describing a woman and how her beauty is so astounding, that if a writer wrote about her automatically their writing would be made famous, and their work would be admired. That is as long as they do not mess up in describing this women. Just like most sonnets it is told from a man’s perspective and is talking about a women. This sonnet does not focus on the idea of love, which is typically, but rather admiration for this woman’s beauty and how amazing it is.
The sonnet is written in the English sonnet form, also known as Shakespearean, since he wrote 154 sonnets in this form, crediting him with the style. It follows the rhythmic pattern of abab cdcd efef gg and is also written in iambic pentameter, which is typical and standard for an English sonnet. It is also broken up into three quatrains and a couplet. The first quatrain is when the man is speaking about how no one can compare the woman to anything but herself. The second is when he says that a man’s writing will be improved just by writing about this woman. The third is when he says that the other writer who writes of the women will have his writing become admired and famous. The couplet at the end describes how the woman’s beauty is a curse and eventually all the praise will not be the same. The quatrains and couplet are easy to spot with this sonnet because the follow with the rhyme pattern of an English sonnet.
LoDolce, A 7/8
“At once I have awakened in a dream,
ReplyDeleteOf knights who save a princess from a pea.
And sleeping though I am, awake I seem.
I slumber to await the king’s decree.
Undoubtedly my wait was short yet cruel,
I can’t express the pain, nor fear, that grew.
Awaiting like an unsuspecting fool,
At last, my dreams of savior have come true.
The sun has risen, everything’s now clear.
Together now we travel paths we roam.
You are the one, my nightmares left no fear,
Just knights in shining armor leading home.
And when I rest my head upon my bed,
I’m safe, as you’re the one beside my head.”
This is a modern sonnet by Sarah Marie Pardy.
This sonnet touches on the traditional romance aspects sonnets usually contain, and adding to the at times cliche topic by referencing fairytales (The Princess and the Pea, specifically). It's a commemoration of the themes that have built the sonnet genre of writing up thus far, and because of that, this one flows naturally with the rest of the genre - even the older ones. She references several archetypes as well - such as the appearance of the sun making everything clear, the birth of knowledge. This sentence is almost whimsical in it's rhythm and rhyme scheme, and offers a light-hearted glance into the topic of love.
- M Daugherty. 7/8.
The Facebook Sonnet
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the endless high-school
Reunion. Welcome to past friends
And lovers, however kind or cruel.
Let’s undervalue and unmend
The present. Why can’t we pretend
Every stage of life is the same?
Let’s exhume, resume, and extend
Childhood. Let’s play all the games
That occupy the young. Let fame
And shame intertwine. Let one’s search
For God become public domain.
Let church.com become our church
Let’s sign up, sign in, and confess
Here at the altar of loneliness.
- Sherman Alexie
“The Facebook Sonnet” by Sherman Alexie would be characterized as a Spenserian Sonnet. This sonnet is split into three quatrains and a couplet, which follows a rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee. Alexie’s sonnet does not follow iambic pentameter, which does not follow the form of the Spenserian Sonnet. Besides that, it follows the form closely.
Alexie uses his sonnet to look down on those on Facebook. The first quatrain focuses on the way the site dives into things of the past and reopens wounds that should have stayed closed. This is portrayed when he says “Welcome to past friends/ And lovers, however kind of cruel” (2,3). People allow themselves to bring back the memories, both good and bad, of those they knew back in the day.
The second quatrain focuses on people trying to live a part of their life that is already completed, a chapter which has ended. Alexie asks “Why can’t we pretend/ Every stage of life is the same?” (5,6). Users “extend childhood” (7,8) by their posts and behaviors online. They waste time playing silly games or trying to regain their old looks and feelings even when they know they accept the reality of the present, which may be better than what they are trying to grasp from the past.
The third quatrain expresses how Facebook allows aspects of life to be publicized in negative ways. Alexie writes “Let fame/ And shame intertwine” (9,10). People use social media to tear down those who are famous. They put people on a high pedestal, only to knock them down. He then says that Facebook “[Lets] one’s search for God/ Become public domain” (10,11). This shows that people use social media to billboard their faith. This can often cause people to have negative views of Christianity because of the way some people choose to portray their faith, for example, taking scripture out of context to say whatever they want.
And finally, the couplet concludes Alexie’s sonnet by saying that one is signing up to write their entire life’s story on a site for the world to see. He says that someone signs up to “confess/ Here at the altar of loneliness” (13,14). People feel more secure alone behind the shield of a screen, when, in fact, they are spilling their lives to any who wants to read about it. An altar symbolizes a safe and non-judgmental space, but social media embodies the exact opposite.
Woods, L 2