Poets, Sonnets, and
Rhetoricians
Aphra Benn,
"Epitaph" [Melissa Hill]
Govinda
Krishna Chettur, "Lord of Unnumbered Hopes" [Catherine Hemmi]
John Donne, "Since She Whom I
Loved" [Eric Verhine]
Gerard Manley Hopkins, "God's
Grandeur" [Ryan Clark]
John Keats, "The Human
Seasons" [Becky Swart]
John Keats, "When I Have
Fears" [Joe Ventura]
Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Four
Sonnets: III" [Jeanette Kehr]
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 129
[Joanne Mueller]
Sir Philip Sydney, Astrophel and
Stella, Sonnet I [Ashley Wexler]
Sir Philip Sydney, Astrophel and
Stella, Sonnet XX [Tim Witherow]
Sir Philip Sydney, Astrophel and
Stella, Sonnet XXXIX [Justin Weilacher]
Sir Philip Sydney, Astrophel and
Stella, Sonnet XLIV
ADDITIONAL
SONNETS
Aphra Behn
:
EPITAPH ON THE TOMBSTONE OF A CHILD, THE LAST OF SEVEN THAT DIED BEFORE
:
1 This Little, Silent, Gloomy Monument,
2 Contains all that was sweet and innocent ;
3 The softest pratler that e'er found a Tongue,
4 His Voice was Musick and his Words a Song ;
5 Which now each List'ning Angel smiling hears,
6 Such pretty Harmonies compose the Spheres;
7 Wanton as unfledg'd Cupids, ere their Charms
8 Has learn'd the little arts of doing harms ;
9 Fair as young Cherubins, as soft and kind,
10 And tho translated could not be refin'd ;
11 The Seventh dear pledge the Nuptial Joys had given,
12 Toil'd here on Earth, retir'd to rest in Heaven ;
13 Where they the shining Host of Angels fill,
14 Spread their gay wings before the Throne, and smile.
This sonnet relies on an overtly pathetic appeal to move
the reader into sympathy for a dead child, and, by extension, the other six who had died
previously. Behn begins with the simple
act of looking at a headstone for a dead child, then goes on to compare dead children to
cherubins, cupids, and angels in turn, connecting them with heaven and god in general.
This is what I would call an overly sentimental poem, relying entirely on sympathy and
emotion for its effect. Overall, I would say this
poem is an ENCOMIUM.
COMMORATIO: "List’ning Angel," "young Cherubins," "unfledged
Cupids"
Line 1: ASSONANCE: "this little silent gloomy monument"
ALLITERATION: (note the "L" sounds in
the preceding line)
The combination of "l" and short "I" sounds in
the first
line gives this sonnet a melancholy, slow-moving, fluid air and
sets the tone for the rest of the sonnet.
Lines 1-2: HYPERBOLE "all that was sweet and innocent;" obvious pathetic appeal
Line 4: SIMILE "His Voice was Musick and his Words a Song"
connecting the child to the angels who already sing in heaven, a
comparison that will be continued later in references to the
music of the spheres and singing before the Throne.
Line 13: HYPERBATON
Line 12: ISOCOLON (or perhaps PARALLELISM): "Toil’d here on
earth, retir’d to rest in Heaven"
Line 8: UNDERSTATEMENT "little arts of doing harm"
Line 14: SYNECHDOCE: "Throne" for God
Line 7,9: METAPHOR: "wanton as unfledg'd Cupids" "fair as young
Cherubins"
MELISSA HILL
Govinda Krishna
Chettur
:
LORD OF UNNUMBERED HOPES
:
1 Lord of unnumbered hopes, unnumbered prayers,
2 Immaculate dream, unknown, unknowable
3 To mortal sense save dimly through the spell
4 Of earth's delights and quickening despairs,
5 Forgive what we have been, and what we are,
6 For that which in Time's fullness we shall be!
7 Thou art the Light, and in Thy shadow we
8 Move in our pathways like a growing star.
9 Make grow our comprehension till we see
10 Through life's bewildering complexity
11 The touch by which inscrutably is wrought
12 Thy will: and shape each word, each act, each thought,
13 Until we learn to read Thy will aright
14 And pass from shadow to Eternal Light.
:
This sonnet is a prayer to a supreme being, asking
forgiveness
for human failings and a plea for understanding of that being’s
will so as to gain knowledge of life's meaning. In the final line
metonymy is used to redefine knowledge as almost divine, thereby
giving it greater importance.
Line 1: Diacope - "unnumbered hopes, unnumbered prayers"
Line 2: Polyptoton - "unknown, unknowable"
Line 1-2: Asyndeton - "Lord of unnumbered hopes, unnumbered
prayers, / Immaculate dream, unknown, unknowable"
Line 3: Alliteration - "To mortal sense save dimly through the
spell"
Line 4: Antithesis – "earth’s delights and quickening despairs"
Line 5-6: Parison – "[…] we have been, […] we are, […] we shall
be!"
Line 6: Personification – "Time’s fullness"
Line 7: Metaphor – "Thy art the Light […]"
Line 7-8: Simile - "in Thy shadow we / Move in our pathways like
a growing star"
Line 9: Hyperbaton – "Make grow our comprehension"
Line 10: Metaphor – "Through life’s bewildering complexity"
Line 11: Hysteron proteron – "[…] inscrutably is wrought"
Line 12: Isocolon – "[…] each word, each act, each thought,"
Line 13: Paranomasia – "[…] read Thy will […]"
Line 14: Metonymy – "[…] Eternal Light."
CATHERINE HEMMI
from THE HOLY SONNETS, by John Donne
Since she whom I lov'd hath paid her
last debt
:
:1 Since she whom I lov'd hath paid her last debt
:2 To nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,
:3 And her soul early into heaven ravished,
:4 Wholly in heavenly things my mind is set.
:5 Here the admiring her my mind did whet
:6 To seek thee, God; so streams do show the head;
:7 But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,
:8 A holy thirsty dropsy melts me yet.
:9 But why should I beg more love, whenas thou
:10 Dost woo my soul, for hers off'ring all thine,
:11 And dost not only fear lest I allow
:12 My love to saints and angels, things divine,
:13 But in thy tender jealousy dost doubt
:14 Lest the world, flesh, yea devil put thee out.
In this sonnet, the speaker laments at
having lost his beloved, a woman who apparently has died. Since the speaker believes
she is in heaven he sets his mind on things above. However, the speaker stuggles
over whether he is dwelling too much on this woman, and not enough on God. He
speculates that God, in his "tender jealousy," may fear that his love for the
woman will overtake his love for God, which the speaker sees as a yielding to "the
world, flesh, yea" the devil.
Rhetorical devices:
Key Metaphors:
1. Lines 1-2: the beloved who pays her last debt.
2. Line 6: the beloved is a stream that points to the "head," or
to God, the endpoint for all streams.
3. Line 8: "A holy thirsty dropsy."
4. Line 7: the metaphor of thirsting.
Aporia:
Line 9: "But why should I beg more love"
Anaphora (sort of):
Lines 7, 9, 13 with the word "But."
Auxesis:
Line 14: "Lest the world, flesh, yea devil"
Assonance:
1. Line 6: seek, thee, streams; To, so, show
2. Line 8: holy thirsty dropsy
3. Line 12: saints, angels
Alliteration:
1. Line 7: though, thee, thou, thirst
2. Line 4: Wholly, heavenly
3. Line 5: Here, her
4. Line 6: so, streams, show
Catachresis:
Line 8: "A holy thirsty dropsy melts me yet."
Chiasmus:
Line 7: "though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed."
Ellipsis:
Line 3: "her soul early into heaven ravished"
Homoioiteleuton:
Line 8: "a holy thirsty dropsy, me"
The entire poem is written in a hypotactic style.
Periodic sentence:
Lines 1-4
Tricolon:
Line 14: "the world, flesh, yea devil"
Many of the devices function well in the poem. Perhaps the primary metaphor of the
poem is that of water, which the poet uses on the basis of his knowledge that his readers
will connect water to the source of life and to sating thirst. This metaphor is so
effective because it leads the reader inevitably to an overwhelming paradox: the speaker
is in danger of loving a stream
instead of the "head," or the ocean. Put this way, one can sense the
central irony of the poem.
The anaphora, which is a stretch, along with the aporia, underscores the great doubt and
turmoil in the speaker's soul. He is debating within himself, raising problems and
answers and
counter-answers. The assonance, which is most apparent in line 6, emphasizes this
important line, which puts in a different way the paradox of the poem: when his beloved
was alive, she made him think of God, but now that she is dead she is displacing God.The
alliteration of line 7 functions to slow the reader, with its repetion of "th."
This line is important because it sets up the
central contrast between the relief that the speaker finds in God and the pain he yet
feels.
The catachresis in line 8 highlights the seriousness of the speaker's pain. It is an
odd metaphor, especially the idea of dropsy melting someone, but I think it shows how the
speaker is truly groping for some device to express his pain. The chiasmus is a
particularly brilliant device, since it shows the paradoxical nature of the human relation
to the divine. In the first clause, the human is active on the object divine, in the
second the divine is active on the object human. This structure mirrors the
paradoxical and simultaneous interaction of the divine on the human and of the human on
the divine. The ellipsis of line 3 is also wonderful. Recall that in that line
the speaker tells us that his beloved was taken "early;" thus, some time that
her life was supposed to have had was taken out. The ellipsis mirrors this
shortening of her life. The homoioiteleuton simply places a great deal of emphasis
on this odd and oddly important metaphor. The poem is written in a hypotactic style
in part to mimic the long and difficult struggle the speaker is expressing in the poem.
The periodic sentence also mimics this expressed struggle. The tricolon and auxesis
are common, but they become highly ironic in the context of Donne's sonnet. For he
is claiming that the sources of sin are causing him to love a person now in heaven, and
that such loving can actually come from such negative forces.
ERIC VERHINE
Gerard Manley
Hopkins, GOD'S GRANDEUR
:
1 The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
2 It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
3 It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
4 Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
5 Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
6 And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
7 And wears man's smudge & shares man's smell: the soil
8 Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
9 And for all this, nature is never spent;
10 There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
11 And though the last lights off the black West went
12 Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --
13 Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
14 World broods with warm breast & with ah! bright wings.
:
This sonnet tells how God, from a
Christian perspective, is
strong and remains strong despite the religious struggles that
occur; present and past. Humans have a tendancy to put religion
on the "back-burner" concerning themselves with economic power
and financial gain rather than spiritual enlightenment. In light
of these discrepancies, the "Holy Ghost" remains protective and
forgiving.
Line 1: Hyperbole- "The world is charged with the grandeur of God"
Line 2: Simile- "It will flame out, like shining from shook foil"
Line 3: Simile- "It gathers to the greatness, like the ooze of
oil"
Line 4: Erotesis- "Why do men then now not reck his rod?"
Line 5: Anaphora, Assonance, Epiphora- "Generations have trod,
have trod, have trod"
Line 6: Assonance, Accumulation- "And all is seared with trade;
bleared, smeared with toil;"
Line 7: Alliteration- "man's smudge & shares man's smell: the
soil"
Line 8: Assonance- "Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod"
Line 10: Assonance, Alliteration- "There lives the dearest
freshness deep down things."
Lines 13-14: Catachresis, Climax, Antonomasia, Aposiopesis-
"Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm
breat & with ah! bright wings."
Lines 1-14: Rhetor
The purpose of these devices are to show emphasis and to allow
the reader to make contemporary connections with religion. His
style allows readers to flow with sonnet and enjoy it while
maintaining the intitial motive of the sonnet.
RYAN CLARK
John Keats, "The Human Seasons"
1 Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;
2 There are four seasons in the mind of man:
3 He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
4 Takes in all beauty with an easy span:
5 He has his Summer, when luxuriously
6 Spring's honied cud of youthful thought he loves
7 To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
8 Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves
9 His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings
10 He furleth close; contented so to look
11 On mists in idleness--to let fair things
12 Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.
13 He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,
14 Or else he would forego his mortal nature.
- The poem opens with an analogy: Keats compares the four seasons of
the year with the four seasons of a man’s mind. By using analogy as the central
rhetorical device, Keats makes a
strong comparison that he will use throughout the poem.
- The structure of the poem is a rhetorical device in itself.
Working off of the analogy he establishes within the first two lines, it easily sets
itself up as a tetracolon. Using isocolon, Keats sets a deliberate rhythm to the
sonnet: with an exception of four lines, each line consists of 10 syllables.
Alternating lines throughout the sonnet end in rhymes (would this be considered
homoioiteleuton?). Dispositio (or structure) is one of the five canons of Rhetoric,
and Keats sets his structure not only to make his sonnet easier to read, but to establish
a framework to communicate his message.
- Metaphor plays a huge role in this sonnet. Besides the poem
being one long analogy, Keats also includes several individual metaphors ("honied cud
of youthful thought") and similes ("fair things / pass by unheeded as a
threshold brook").
- Keats uses ethopoeia (putting oneself in place of another so as to
both understand and express his or her feelings more vividly) and becomes the voice of
every man as he describes the
various stages of man’s soul in relation to the seasons. Using ethopoeia helps
to make Keats’s voice more descriptive when accounting the various conditions of the
human soul, while also
making it more universally acceptable to his audience.
- Personification is used throughout the sonnet, as seen when Keats
gives both the seasons and the soul various human characteristics. It is the
personification of the seasons ("lusty Spring" "Spring’s honied cud of
youthful thought") that helps to ease the transition for the reader between seasons
of the year to the seasons of man’s mind.
- Anaphora is used in a few places in the poem to begin lines;
"He has,""He," or other references to man are used to begin five
separate lines of the sonnet. Keats uses anaphora as
part of a recurrent structure and also to emphasize the personal application of the
seasons to the life of man.
BECKY SWART
John Keats, WHEN I HAVE FEARS THAT I MAY CEASE TO BE
:
1 When I have fears that I may cease to be
2 Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
3 Before high-piled books, in charactery,
4 Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
5 When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
6 Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
7 And think that I may never live to trace
8 Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
9 And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
10 That I shall never look upon thee more,
11 Never have relish in the faery power
12 Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
13 Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
14 Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
The Poet throughout the text, if not simply from the
title, seems to be pondering the amount of time he has left to master his art. He seems to
be contemplating his own mortality and its
meaning within the scope of his time left to produce.
Lines 1-2: ASSONANCE with "glean’d" and "teeming", use of
SYNECDOCHE with "brain" probably for what’s contained within it;
And possible METONYMY or synecdoche with "pen" for writing;
Possible METOPHOR with "cease to be" for dying.
Lines 3-4: SIMILE between the "high piled books"
and "garners". "garners the full ripen’d grain" a reference back
to "glean’d" in line one which now takes on another meaning,
SYLLEPSIS. He’s commenting on his words being like grain, which
could grow, more metaphor, or possibly feed.
Lines 5: PERSONIFICATION of night with "starr’d face"
Lines 7-8: METAPHOR "trace their shadow" for, once again,
writing. ASSONANCE with "magic hand of chance"
Line 10: METAPHOR "look upon thee more" seeing as living.
Line 12-14: use of PARENTHESIS
It may be that the use of parenthesis in the 12th line was to designate his answer to the
title/question. It's possible that when troubled over how much he’s written or the
chance to write
more he goes off to be alone and finds that love and fame lose their meaning.
JOE VENTURA
Go to second page of analyses (Millay through
Sydney)
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English 5730 is taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist.
Armstrong Atlantic State University
Savannah, Georgia 31419
912-921-5991
e-mail: chiasmus@netzero.com
08 January 2003 |
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