Lauren Alleyne uses the rigid form of the sonnet to navigate through the healing process after being sexually assaulted. Ten years after that night, she writes the sonnet sequence Eighteen, which deviates from the typical sonnet form in the aspects of the speaker, subject, and format. Playing off of the standard sonnet form, Alleyne is able to recount the emotions of that night during the first sonnet in the sequence. The typical sonnet tends to objectify the female body or one’s lover; in this sequence, the sonnets address what happens when an individual acts on these objectifications and assaults Alleyne. Alleyne deviates from the standard subject and speaker of the typical sonnet form to begin the healing process; the process begins …show more content…
This is a deviation from the typical sonnet in the sense that the usual speaker is a male character praising the body of a lover, feature by feature. The breakdown of the body is one aspect that remains present in this sonnet; “when your mouth is an absence of screams” (Line 11). The metaphor use shows that at this moment she did not have a voice; she did not yet have a way to call out for help or express her emotions in this very early stage in the healing process. The moment after the assault is when the healing process begins; the sonnet expresses the emotions that she could not speak of at the time. The speaker calls attention to the eyes of the subject with the phrase, “your eyes’ salty runoff,” (Line 2). This metaphor is used to compare the tears that are running down her face to the small rivers that are drowning her. This suggests that she is being overwhelmed with emotions that she cannot put a name to. The typical sonnet examines the female body in a loving manner but Alleyne examines her body with a negative approach to amplify the wrongs that were committed against her …show more content…
Her attitude towards the subject is not the typical adoration that is often present in this form of poetry. Having the speaker and the subject be the same person allows Alleyne to have a critical look at herself in this moment of her life. The phrase “sweet girl,” describes the subject with an unexpected negative connotation (Line 5). Sweet is defined as, “dear to the person [herself], usually sarcastically” (OED Online). The connotation of this is that, looking back on the situation, she believed that she was being naïve in this moment. Blame is placed onto the subject for not understanding the situation at the time. This self-blame is a setback in the healing process. The use of the sonnet allows Alleyne to make implications without directly spelling them out; she is able to show express her disappointment with her reaction to the situation without explicitly stating it. The act of writing the sonnets allows Alleyne to express the frustrations that she was unable to communicate after the night of her sexual assault; being able to find the words now shows a moment of progression in Alleyne’s
At different points throughout the poem Notley repeats the thesis of the story. The poem reads, “the holy men,” “the wise men,” “are frivolous” “and cruel” Here Notley is blatantly addressing the brutality of patriarchy. (Notley 90) Alette is being told that powerful men and those that are labeled as “holy” are also cruel. Unless this immorality is stopped there will be no truth in this world. Notley is trying to make the reader understand the need for gender equality. In society women are looked at as inferior to men when it comes to strength and power. She is challenging that idea through Alette’s journey to take down the tyrant. Alette is a heroin in this poem, and portrays characteristics far different than how society has identified femininity. Femininism is not a bad thing, it simply calls for gender equality, and that is what Alette is chasing in this story.
Brooks was the first child of David and Keziah Brooks. She was born on June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. Brooks wrote her first poem when she was 13 years old and was published in the children’s. Moreover she was the first black author to win the Pulitzer prize. magazine. In 1938 she was married to Henry Blakely and had two children. After a long battle of cancer Brooks died in December 3, 2000.
Girl Time is a book written by Maisha T. Winn who is a former public elementary school and high school teacher. She has worked extensively with youth inside and outside urban schools throughout the United States. Winn provides information in the book about girls incarcerated in juvenile detention centers and girls who have been previously incarcerated.
"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal [but] which the reader recognizes as his own." (Salvatore Quasimodo). There is something about the human spirit that causes us to rejoice in shared experience. We can connect on a deep level with our fellow man when we believe that somehow someone else understands us as they relate their own joys and hardships; and perhaps nowhere better is this relationship expressed than in that of the poet and his reader. For the current assignment I had the privilege (and challenge) of writing an imitation of William Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 87". This poem touched a place in my heart because I have actually given this sonnet to someone before as it then communicated my thoughts and feelings far better than I could. For this reason, Sonnet 87 was an easy choice for this project, although not quite so easy an undertaking as I endeavored to match Shakespeare’s structure and bring out his themes through similar word choice.
Nearly four centuries after the invention of the sonnet, Oscar Fay Adams was born. He stepped into his career at the brink of the American civil war, a time when typically cold Victorian era romances were set in stark contrast to the passions of Warhawks. It was in this era when Adams wrote his sonnet: “Indifference”, which explores the emotional turmoil and bitterness a man endures as he struggles to move on from a failed relationship . Adams utilizes the speaker's story in order to dramatize the plight of an individual trying and failing to reconcile holding on to the joy that passionate love brings with the intense pain it bestows in conjunction with this joy . Adams employs various poetic devices in order to present a new view of indifference,
One might wonder why Brooks produces poetry, especially the sonnet, if she also condemns it. I would suggest that by critically reckoning the costs of sonnet-making Brooks brings to her poetry a self-awareness that might justify it after all. She creates a poetry that, like the violin playing she invokes, sounds with "hurting love." This "hurting love" reminds us of those who may have been hurt in the name of the love for poetry. But in giving recognition to that hurt, it also fulfills a promise of poetry: to be more than a superficial social "grace," to teach us something we first did not, or did not wish to, see.
In the month of March 2016, Women of the World Poetry Slam had Rachel Wiley, a poet and body-positive activist, present her now viral poem called “The Dozens” (Vagianos 2016). This poem was about slams white feminism as a clear indication of whiteness self-defense mechanism. In this poem Wiley included various kinds social events that have occurred in the past years and just to name two: Raven Symone on blackness and Miley Cyrus and Nicki Manji at the VMAs. White feminism continues to become more problematic as the media continues to allow it to be because whiteness makes money; however, intersectionality about race, public imagery, and actual feminism also continues to go viral as the diversity of American become more and more productive.
The desire to express one’s feelings can be a complicated and stressful task. In the free imitation poem, "Hidden Heart," by Natalie Meyers, a young woman expresses the frustration she experiences when trying to write her loved one. Likewise, the first sequence of Sir Philip Sydney’s sonnet, "Astrophil and Stella," explores one man’s struggle to write from his heart and eliminate the yearning to select the perfect words for a letter written to his love, Stella. Both Astrophil and Meyers are distraught over what to say and how to say it. Since "Hidden Heart" is an imitation of Sydney’s sonnet, several parallels can be drawn between their common theme, word choice, and form. The "Hidden Hearts" theme of free expression, its diction, and structure, must be compared and contrasted with intertextual references from "Astrophil and Stella," in order to effectively analyze it.
“On Being Cautioned against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because it was Frequented by a Lunatic,” Charlotte Smith’s sonnet, comments on the poet’s feelings toward this lunatic and the thought process he instigates in her mind. By using different syntax to describe her two characters, Smith draws the attention of the reader to the message in the sonnet instead of the scene on the surface. The structure of the English sonnet also lends to the poem’s power, giving Smith a perfect avenue to deliver her message.
The speaker uses metaphors to describe his mistress’ eyes to being like the sun; her lips being red as coral; cheeks like roses; breast white as snow; and her voices sounding like music. In the first few lines of the sonnet, the speaker view and tells of his mistress as being ugly, as if he was not attracted to her. He give...
In Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets, Smith uses nature as a vehicle to express her complex emotions and yearn for a renewal of her spirit. Utilizing the immortal characteristics of spring and the tempestuous nature of the ocean, Smith creates a poetic world that is both a comfort and a hindrance to her tortured soul. Even while spring can provide her with temporary solace and the ocean is a friend in her sorrow, both parts of nature constantly remind her of something that she will never be able to accomplish: the renewal of her anguished spirit and complete happiness in life once more. Through three of her sonnets in this collection, Smith connects with the different parts of nature and displays her sensible temperament with her envy over nature’s ability to easily renew its beauty and vitality. In “Written at the close of Spring,” Smith’s second sonnet, she focuses on the wonderful ability nature has in rejuvenating itself each year.
In Elizabeth Browning’s poem ‘Sonnet 43’, Browning explores the concept of love through her sonnet in a first person narrative, revealing the intense love she feels for her beloved, a love which she does not posses in a materialistic manner, rather she takes it as a eternal feeling, which she values dearly, through listing the different ways she loves her beloved.
In “Sonnet XVII,” the text begins by expressing the ways in which the narrator does not love, superficially. The narrator is captivated by his object of affection, and her inner beauty is of the upmost significance. The poem shows the narrator’s utter helplessness and vulnerability because it is characterized by raw emotions rather than logic. It then sculpts the image that the love created is so personal that the narrator is alone in his enchantment. Therefore, he is ultimately isolated because no one can fathom the love he is encountering. The narrator unveils his private thoughts, leaving him exposed and susceptible to ridicule and speculation. However, as the sonnet advances toward an end, it displays the true heartfelt description of love and finally shows how two people unite as one in an overwhelming intimacy.
Mermin, Dorothy. “Sonnet XXIX.” Poetry for Students. Ed. David Galens. Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale, 2002. 147-155. Print.
Sir Thomas Wyatt is credited as one of the first poets to bring the sonnet form into English literature, a form in which the speaker’s sincerity for, most commonly, a distant mysterious woman whom he loves, is believed to be the focal point of the poetry. From the selection of works which Wyatt wrote we can see many point in which the focal point is seemingly the earnestness of his love for his muse as authenticated by what he states in the poem itself. However, there is a sense of underlying meaning throughout his works which the reader must tease out themselves to see that that in fact is the focal point of his poetry.