#1
Nationality:
Themes:
Emotions:
Topics:
Form:
support@poemanalysis.com
Poem Solutions Limited
Company no: 10883994
United Kingdom
Sonnets are a classic form of verse that originated in Italy during the 13th century. These poems consist of 14 lines, typically written in iambic pentameter.
There are various sonnets, including the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet and the English or Shakespearean sonnet. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave followed by a sestet, while the Shakespearean sonnet comprises three quatrains and a rhymed couplet.
Sonnets often explore love, beauty, time, and mortality themes, offering a structured and compact canvas for poets to express their emotions and reflections. The constrained form of the sonnet challenges poets to craft precise and lyrical verse, resulting in timeless and evocative poems.
Donne’s ‘Death, be not proud,’ rooted in the Christian idea of the afterlife, challenges the personified death, exposing its illusory power.
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
Lowell’s ‘Night Sweat’ portrays his struggle with writer’s block and profound distress, finding solace in his wife’s comforting presence.
Work-table, litter, books and standing lamp,
plain things, my stalled equipment, the old broom---
but I am living in a tidied room,
‘To My Brothers’ by John Keats encapsulates familial love, intellectual camaraderie, and the fleeting beauty of shared moments in life.
Small, busy flames play through the fresh-laid coals,
And their faint cracklings o'er our silence creep
Like whispers of the household gods that keep
A gentle empire o'er fraternal souls.
‘The Tradition’ is the titular poem from Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown’s poetry collection. It brings to light the maltreatment of African Americans in the present US, while relating it to the past.
Aster. Nasturtium. Delphinium. We thought
Fingers in dirt meant it was our dirt, learning
Names in heat, in elements classical
Philosophers said could change us. Star Gazer.
‘Canal Bank Walk’ explores a spiritual communion with nature, yearning for a pure, unselfconscious connection with the divine.
Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal
Pouring redemption for me, that I do
The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal,
Grow with nature again as before I grew.
‘Sonnet 107’ by William Shakespeare addresses how the speaker and the Fair Youth are going to be memorialized and outsmart death through the “poor rhyme” of poetry.
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
Of the wide world dreaming on things to come,
Can yet the lease of my true love control,
Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.
‘Marked With D’ by Tony Harrison is a sad poem about mortality and the ways in which human lives are valued.
When the chilled dough of his flesh went in an oven
not unlike those he fuelled all his life,
I thought of his cataracts ablaze with Heaven
‘Delia 31’ by Samuel Daniel highlights how quickly youth and beauty fade, reminding us to value them while we can.
Look, Delia, how we 'steem the half-blown rose,
The image of thy blush and summer's honour,
Whilst in her tender green she doth enclose
That pure sweet beauty time bestows upon her.
PB Shelley’s ‘Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples’ describes the speaker’s dejection and how nature soothes his mood.
The sun is warm, the sky is clear,
The waves are dancing fast and bright,
Blue isles and snowy mountains wear
The purple noon's transparent might,
‘Summer of Love’ by Joyce Kilmer juxtaposes nature’s beauty with enduring love, celebrating the lasting joy of affection.
June lavishes sweet-scented loveliness
And sprinkles sunfilled wine on everything;
The very leaves grow drunk with bliss and sing
And every breeze becomes a soft caress.
‘Dreams’ by Helen Hunt Jackson exists on the boundary between dream and nightmare as it explores the way in which memories of the past return to us in our sleep no matter how hard we try to forget them.
Mysterious shapes, with wands of joy and pain,
Which seize us unaware in helpless sleep,
And lead us to the houses where we keep
Our secrets hid, well barred by every chain
‘Holy Sonnet XIII’ by John Donne is a religious poem that discusses the poet’s mortality and change of opinion when it comes to beauty and the state of his soul.
What if this present were the world's last night ?
Mark in my heart, O soul, where thou dost dwell,
The picture of Christ crucified, and tell
Whether His countenance can thee affright.
‘Don’t Go Far Off’ by Pablo Neruda is an impassioned plea for the beloved’s constant presence, showing fear of separation.
Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.
In Holy Sonnet XVIII, Donne asks Christ to reveal His Church-as-Bride, probing her truth, form, and role through metaphysical conceits and spiritual doubt.
Show me dear Christ, thy spouse so bright and clear.
What! is it she which on the other shore
Goes richly painted? or which, robb'd and tore,
Laments and mourns in Germany and here?
‘Leda and the Swan’ is a standout sonnet by W.B. Yeats, featured in his 1928 collection, The Tower. The poem explores the Greek myth of Leda, seduced by Zeus as a swan, and is considered one of Yeats’ finest works.
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
support@poemanalysis.com
Poem Solutions Limited
Company no: 10883994
United Kingdom
Access Poetry PDF Guides
for this Poem
Complete Poetry PDF Guide
Perfect Offline Resource
Covers Everything You Need to Know
One-pager 'snapshot' PDF
Great Offline Resource
Gateway to deeper understanding
870+ Reviews
