Due for Tuesday:
Go online, or explore some literature books of your past, and find a sonnet that you want to share with the class.
1. You need to post the sonnet and author first.
2. Then, write a short paragraph discussing what you notice about the sonnet structurally, as well as what you think the poet's overall message is within the piece.
Now Shakespeare is one of the most popular sonnet writers of all time, but he isn't the only one! Feel free to explore modern sonnets as well, but remember to post the author's name for citation!
Sonnet: “The irresponsive silence of the land”
ReplyDeleteBy Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)
THE IRRESPONSIVE silence of the land,
The irresponsive sounding of the sea,
Speak both one message of one sense to me:—
‘Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof; so stand
Thou too aloof bound with the flawless band
Of inner solitude; we bind not thee;
But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free?
What heart shall touch thy heart? what hand thy hand?’
And I am sometimes proud and sometimes meek,
And sometimes I remember days of old
When fellowship seemed not so far to seek
And all the world and I seemed much less cold,
And at the rainbow’s foot lay surely gold,
And hope felt strong and life itself not weak.
“The irresponsive silence of the land” by Christina Rossetti is a sonnet, which follows an abbaaaa rhyme scheme in the first eight lines and a cdcddc pattern in the last six lines. Rossetti begins by telling her audience she hears a silent message come from the land and the sea; they tell her everyone and everything stand aloof, or independently, from the rest of the world. Rossetti is told everyone is “bound with the flawless band of inner solitude” (5-6, Rossetti); this means we, as humans, keep ourselves distanced from other people because of seclusion we feel inside. This internal isolation creates a “self-chain” (7, Rossetti) that we tie around ourselves. Seclusion can stem from insecurity or depression that prevents people from knowing us closely or intimately. In line 7, Rossetti asks who will be the one to unleash us from our chains of solitude and let us feel loved and accepted. A tone-shift occurs at the ninth line, where, instead of focusing on humanity, she describes her personal distress: between lines 9-14, she tells her audience she wishes to live in “days of old” (10, Rossetti), where life seemed more warm, welcoming, and prosperous. The syntax of this poem allows the tone of the poem to change more naturally, as punctuation of the seventh and eighth line indicates a subsequent change in topic. The question marks add more significance to the lines in which the questions are presented. Also, the lack of punctuation—save for the final line—between lines 9-14 can imply Rossetti’s chaotically forlorn mindset, which is described by her disillusioned thoughts.
Additional information should be added to the analysis of this poem. "The irresponsive silence of the land" is an Italian poem because it has an octave-sestet outline; another indication that this specific sonnet is not English or Shakespearean is the lack of a couplet in the two final lines. Also--on a more analytic note--Rossetti could have chosen the land and the sea as comparisons to aloofness because they will never separate or grow away from themselves, and they will never permanently be physically attached to something else. Here in this notion lies nature's more independent features; this is a symbol for humans in solitude when there is no other person to set us free from our "self-chain".
DeleteThe Golden Years
ReplyDeleteby Billy Collins
All I do these drawn-out days
is sit in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge
where there are no pheasant to be seen
and last time I looked, no ridge.
I could drive over to Quail Falls
and spend the day there playing bridge,
but the lack of a falls and the absence of quail
would just remind me of Pheasant Ridge.
I know a widow at Fox Run
and another with a condo at Smokey Ledge.
One of them smokes, and neither can run,
so I'll stick to the pledge I made to Midge.
Who frightened the fox and bulldozed the ledge?
I ask in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge.
The poem, "The Golden Years" by Billy Collins, is a rather meaningful poem. Throughout the majority of the poem he talks about the inquisitiveness of the names of cities or neighborhoods that he lives in or near. For example he says"sit in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge where there are no pheasant to be seen and last time I looked, no ridge." (2-4) I thought it was rather interesting throughout the poem that he makes wonders about the curious names of the place that he lives near. Then when he gets to the last line he asks "Who frightened the fox and bulldozed the ledge? I ask in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge."(13-14) This part made me wonder as to what the poem is about. I believe it is about the destruction and the wear and tear that year of existence brings to something. In this case the narrator is obviously talking about the neighborhoods but it could be expanded even further; he could be discussing how he has deteriorated over the years as he has gotten older. I assume the narrator is a retiree because of the first line saying "All I do these drawn-out days"(1) so he might also be referring to himself in this instance as well. As far as the poem goes it is a sonnet and the only tone shift in sight is the last two lines because he asks who changed these places and what happened to them, instead of harping on the odd names for another two lines. The author also uses a rhyme scheme through each quatrain of ABAB. The sonnet is also broken up into 3 different quatrains representing the three different places that he talks about.
Additional information could be added to my analysis based on what I learned in class today. I learned that there are two types of sonnets, Italian and English. I couldn't help but notice the Italian aspects my sonnet entails. The poem has a rhyme scheme throughout the poem. It is not ABBA style, like the typical Italian, but the scheme is somewhat similar. It also has a couplet that concludes the poem exactly like the Italian style. So through the knowledge that I learned today in class I can safely say that my poem is an Italian style poem.
Delete“Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead…”
ReplyDeleteIs it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?
And would the sun for thee more coldly shine
Because of grave-damps falling round my head?
I marvelled, my Belovèd, when I read
Thy thought so in the letter. I am thine---
But . . . so much to thee? Can I pour thy wine
While my hands tremble? Then my soul, instead
Of dreams of death, resumes life's lower range.
Then love me, Love! look on me---breathe on me!
As brighter ladies do not count it strange,
For love, to give up acres and degree,
I yield the grave for thy sake, and exchange
My near sweet view of Heaven, for earth with thee!
-Elizabeth Barrett Browing
Browing’s sonnet, “Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead…” tells the story of a woman who is desperate to know her lover’s true feelings for her. This sonnet is written with many question marks. Browing used the multiple question marks to express the desperation of the woman. The sonnet begins with the woman asking her lover that if she “lay here dead” (1, Browing), would he miss her? She fears that he doesn’t return the strong emotions that she feels for him, so she paints a horrid picture of herself dying and being buried in her grave. He writes her a letter with a simple message—“I am thine” (60, Browing). His message to her causes a tone shift in line seven. The woman is shocked that he loves her in that way that her “hands tremble” (8, Browing). Her outlook on the world changes once she knows that he loves her. She isn’t pondering her own death anymore—instead she has a greater outlook on life. It’s amazing that one man’s feelings can make her emotions change like a light switch. She was prepared to die if he didn’t love her, but now that he does love her, everything is sunshine and rainbows. Love had taken control of her life and caused it to spiral out of control.
This poem is also an Italian sonnet. In the octave, the woman is desperate for love. She's struggling to convince herself of her lover's true feelings. After the tone shift, the sestet gives the feeling of a resolution.
DeleteAlso, the rhyme scheme of this poem proves that it is an Italian sonnet. The rhyme scheme is abbaabbacdcdcd. This is a typical rhyme scheme for an Italian sonnet.
SONNET IN THE WIND
ReplyDelete(The Archer)
By: Curtis Moorman
Hark! What wind doth blow in yonder forest
Stirring the spirit of a long dead archer
In his endless search for the unwary doe
He stealthily lifts his bow - aiming hurriedly
His shot misses - his prey flees - frightened
Alas! He trudges onward - eyes peering intently
A huge buck with antlers like a tree
Suddenly looms on the horizon
He sniffs - testing the wind for signs
Is danger lurking near
The twang of the bowstring alerts his keen senses
He pivots swiftly - his white tail flashing
He bounds away - snorting contemptuously
The archer - stirred by the wind - is seeking still
Moorman's sonnet, "The Archer", is very interesting because of the structure he choice to write the sonnet in. There are only two cases of punctuation, each after only one word. Moorman does this to add imagery to his sonnet because the whole sonnet feels rushed and tense, just like the story he trying to tell. After reading this I felt the urgency of the archer and the power of the buck all because there were simply hardly any places to stop and catch my breath. The powerful imagery in this sonnet is fantastic. The whole sonnet is a vision of the archer going after the doe and buck, not just words written on paper. Moorman used visual imagery and auditory imagery throughout the sonnet. But he also wrote in a way that had you feeling the archer's distress and the buck's fight for survival. The sonnet also comes full circle, so the archer once again has to wait for his next prey.
This sonnet is an Italian sonnet. There is no rhyme scheme going on in the sonnet, but it is set up with an octave and sestet. In the octave the focus is on the archer and him preparing to kill a doe. The archer misses and keeps looking, but the mood doesn't change until the sestet when the sonnet switches to the buck's thoughts. The mood suddenly becomes more tense because the buck is trying to survive.
DeleteRemember by Christina Rossetti
ReplyDeleteRemember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of thoughts that I once had
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
In Remember, the persona of the sonnet seems at peace with his/her death. They aren’t afraid to die, but are mainly worried about what will happen to their loved ones and how they will cope with their death. They don’t want them to feel any guilt for moving on with their lives or being happy after their death (lines 9 and 10). Mostly, he/she is just worried that their loved ones will not remember them in a happy way but only remember them for their death. I was given the impression that this poem isn’t strictly someone talking to their romantic interest. Line three especially- “When you can no more hold me by the hand”- could also be applied to parent/child relationships, or even sibling relationships. Structurally, includes three sentences, but it has a lot of colons and semi-colons. Basically, I think that Christina Rossetti wrote Remember because she thinks that it’s important for people who have lost someone to remember the positive, happy memories about that person as well and also not feel guilt for having happiness after their death.
You can tell that Remember is an Italian sonnet, because of the rhyme scheme,which includes the with the octave and sestet parts. There were also many indents included throughout the poem, which I learned today probably suggested tone shifts.
DeleteIf We Must Die
ReplyDeleteBy Claude McKay
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us through dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
McKay's sonnet is rather straightforward. He was a Harlem Renaissance writer, and he dealt with the social inequalities that African Americans faced at the time. Senseless violence and hatred toward African Americans inspired many writers to put pen to paper. In "We Must Die," McKay is saying that African Americans must stand up for themselves and "face the murderous, cowardly pack." (13). The spirit of the poem is shown in its sentence structure. The apostrophe in line 9 embodies the fight that McKay desires. The couplet in his final lines says it outright. The violent people might be able to kill the African Americans, but they cannot kill their spirit.
Based on class today and the information we read about sonnets, I can say that this is a Shakespearean sonnet. The couplet at the end indicates that. In the octave, there are two quatrains, and there is a third in the first four lines of the sestet.
DeleteThe Cave
ReplyDeleteBy Tony Barnstone
I was the torch man, and I liked it, strange
as that is to admit. It was the worst
thing in the world. I'd sneak up into range
and throw a flame in, just a burst. A burst
is all it takes. It sucks the oxygen
and then they burn alive or suffocate.
My mouth still tastes that taste, burnt flesh. Back then,
I felt nothing. I did my job. No hate,
no nothing. The men liked me, called me Hot Shot.
But it meant nothing when the Nips would rush
out, clothes on fire and smoking, and we'd shoot
them dead. It meant we lived. Nothing to gush
about. I don't have anything to hide.
Nothing. I shoved it all down deep inside.
Tony Barnstone's sonnet, "The Cave" is a very interesting piece of literature. It only took me a couple lines to figure out the true meaning of the cave other than some weird guy who puts fires in caves. The real key in figuring out the poems true meaning was when the persona said, "It sucks the oxygen
and then they burn alive or suffocate. My mouth still tastes that taste, burnt flesh" (5-7). In this key part the first thing that popped into my mind was A. Schindler's List, and B. The Storyteller; what do "Schindler's List" and "The Storyteller" have in common? They're both about the holocaust. That's when it clicked. The persona, I'm assuming a German Nazi, describes in the beginning of the poem what his job was, or is--he starts the flame and throws it into, "The Cave"--referring to the gas chambers where they killed the victims of the Holocaust. Later, he stated how he did his job, and that meant to live, if the Nazi's didn't do what they were supposed to do, then they would pay for it, ultimately in death. The persona also says that he would, "Shoot them dead" (11-12). The persona also stated that he did what he had to do, he has nothing to hide,and he, "Shoved it all deep down" (14), which was what many Nazi's did. The total meaning of this poem was about the Holocaust and a German Nazi referring to what he had to do doing the period of World War II.
The poem is obviously a sonnet, meaning it has 14 lines to it. The poem has somewhat of a rhyme scheme pattern being, ABAB CDCD EFGF HH. The poem consisted of many short sentences, along with one longer sentence. The sonnet doesn't have a high level of vocabulary, it's actually quite simple.
After today's class, I've learned that there are two different types of sonnets. The classification of this sonnet would be an Italian sonnet due to the rhyme scheme in the first octave of ABAB. The sestet also gives a form of flashback, which would be a tone shift, indicating it's Italian roots.
DeleteEnnui
ReplyDeleteBy Sylvia Plath
Tea leaves thwart those who court catastrophe,
designing futures where nothing will occur:
cross the gypsy’s palm and yawning she
will still predict no perils left to conquer.
Jeopardy is jejune now: naïve knight
finds ogres out-of-date and dragons unheard
of, while blasé princesses indict
tilts at terror as downright absurd.
The beast in Jamesian grove will never jump,
compelling hero’s dull career to crisis;
and when insouciant angels play God’s trump,
while bored arena crowds for once look eager,
hoping toward havoc, neither pleas nor prizes
shall coax from doom’s blank door lady or tiger.
This sonnet by Sylvia Plath consists of only three sentences, but numerous pieces of punctuation in between. The use of so much punctuation allows the reader to pause and collect their thoughts, but it also contributes to the “clutter” of the poem. There is so much being said in these three sentences that it is a little overwhelming. In the beginning of the poem, Plath says “tea leaves thwart those who court catastrophe” (line 1) which is the idea that people who cause trouble have no definite future. When you bring bad things upon yourself and others, no one knows what the future has in store for you. In the second sentence, there are several fairy tale references: the “naïve knight” (5), the “dragons” (6), and the “princesses” (7). We know from reading Foster’s book that these references are important; by bringing up key characters from fairy tales, readers instantly have made a connection. The last sentence of Plath’s sonnet has a lot going on. There is a mention of the “hero” (10) and it could be argued that that is another fairy tale-type reference. However, the most notable part of this sentence is when Plath writes “bored arena crowds for once look eager, hoping toward havoc” (12-13). This phrase refers to the human race’s obsession with watching bad things happen – on the news, reading about recent tragedies in newspapers, even violent sports! These last few lines also contribute to Plath’s use of imagery. She creates a very vivid picture in the reader’s mind and allows for you to imagine this arena full of people anxiously waiting for something dramatic to happen.
This is an Italian sonnet because of the rhyme scheme - abab abab cdcdcd. The octave is the first eight lines and the sestet is the following six lines. The change from the octave to the sestet is very clear because of the break between them.
DeleteRemember
ReplyDeleteBY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day a
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand b
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Christina Rossetti’s passionate sonnet, Remember, flawlessly depicts how a work can possess meaning, with merely an essence of simplicity, rather than complexity. From a structural aspect, Remember contains fourteen lines and possesses an ABBA rhyme scheme. The author essentially emphasizes her philosophy on the beauty of closure after death – foreign to the vast majority of people’s interpretation. Rossetti elaborates, “Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad.” (13-14). The crucial belief being depicted here is: don’t mourn and allow death to be a burden, rather find peace with death and move onward. Due to the diction throughout the piece, “silent land” (2) or “When you can no more hold me by the hand…” (3), the intended audience is someone near and dear to her heart.
After today's class, I am familiar with the two essential structures that a sonnet may fall into: Italian (Petrarchan) or English. The sonnet presented above possesses an ABBA octave, and a different rhyme scheme within the sestet. I must consider the lacking of a concluding couplet, eliminating the Italian structure/ style sonnet. I am now confident in saying education involving sonnets has grown.
DeleteBaylee Hayes said...
ReplyDeleteMowing
Robert Frost
There was never a sound beside the wood but one,
And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.
What was it it whispered? I knew not well myself;
Perhaps it was something about the heat of the sun,
Something, perhaps, about the lack of sound—
And that was why it whispered and did not speak.
It was no dream of the gift of idle hours,
Or easy gold at the hand of fay or elf:
Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak
To the earnest love that laid the swale in rows,
Not without feeble-pointed spikes of flowers
(Pale orchises), and scared a bright green snake.
The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.
My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make.
While reading the poem "Mowing" by Robert Frost I immediately thought of a lawn mower. The word scythe comes up in the second line and a scythe is a tool used for cutting crops such as grass or wheat. This also supports the last line when he says, "My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make," (14). If you cut grass it turns into hay, and cutting grass as in mowing? It almost seems too easy that the entire sonnet can be found in the title but that's the case sometimes. If a long blade could whisper to the grass I assume it would talk about something like the heat. This sonnet isn't very complex, but it's enjoyable to read!