sonnetsqueezing2006

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SONNET SQUEEZING (spring 2006)

THE ASSIGNMENT
SONNET SQUEEZE. No later than 6:00 p.m. on February 20 (but preferably sooner), submit your "sonnet squeeze" in an e-mail attachment (usual guidelines: Word doc, both pasted in and attached; standard format; your name included in attached file). Here's how this exercise works:
(1) Go to the "Sonnet Squeezing" pages for the class of 2002 and for the class of 2005, and then review some of the examples posted there, especially Melissa Hill's "squeeze" of Aphra Benn's "Epitaph," Eric Verhine's squeeze of John Donne, Joanne Mueller's squeeze of Shakespeare's Sonnet 129, my squeeze of Sonnet 44 from Sydney's Astrophil and Stella, Julia Vanlerberghe's squeeze of "Being Born a Woman and Distressed," and Alicia Ferrell's squeeze of "The World Is Too Much with Us." Disregard the instructions from 2002 to post your work to the bulletin board; we'll be relying on e-mail for this one.
(2) Select a sonnet, any sonnet in English except those that are listed on the two "Sonnet Squeezing" pages (2002 and 2005) or that we've already discussed in class. If you don't have a favorite sonnet to work with, you'll find plenty of choices on the SAMPLING OF SONNETS page and countless more at Sonnet Central.
(3) Read your sonnet aloud several times--and then start "squeezing" (an expression used by Richard Lanham in Analyzing Prose: "exhaustive rhetorical description: find every verbal pattern you can in a given text").
(4) Copy and paste your sonnet (making sure that you identify the poet) onto a Word page.
(5) Directly beneath the sonnet, in just a few sentences, briefly summarize what you perceive to be the rhetorical situation and the central idea and/or movement of the sonnet.
(6) Under your summary, specifically show me (with line references and, where necessary, direct quotations) each stylistic device and rhetorical strategy (in CAPITAL LETTERS) that you can identify, and (wherever possible) . . .
(7) . . . briefly explain ("so what?") the apparent purpose or effect of each device or strategy you've named. (If you're uncertain of the "so what?" at least provide the "show me.") Do NOT give definitions of the terms (most of which, of course, are in our online glossary).
(8) Make sure that your name is on top of the page, save the page as a Word document, and finally send me an e-mail with that Word document attached and pasted into your e-mail message. (Don't name the file "rhetoric" or "sonnet": give it your name.)

Student Squeezers (2006)

this page . . .
Lisa Hom / Kia Cooper / James Cambre /
Emilie Tuminella / Tara Gergacs / Mary Culp /
Autumn Flynn / Leslie Moses / Bisceglia Coleman

next page . . .
Katharine Phipps   /   Macrae Carreker   /   Stephanie Deal
Artisheia Brown   /    Nicki Peebles    /   Stephanie Roberts
Ashley Walden   /    Tiffany Lynn Carabello    /   Alex Barbee

Lisa Hom

Sonnet Found in a Deserted Mad-house
Anonymous

Oh that my soul a marrow-bone might seize!
For the old egg of my desire is broken,
Spilled is the pearly white and spilled the yolk, and
As the mild melancholy contents grease
My path the shorn lamb baas like bumblebees.
Time's trashy purse is as a taken token
Or like a thrilling recitation, spoken
By mournful mouths filled full of mirth and cheese.
And yet, why should I clasp the earthful urn?
Or find the frittered fig that felt the fast?
Or choose to chase the cheese around the churn?
Or swallow any pill from out the past?
Ah, no Love, not while your hot kisses burn
Like a potato riding on the blast.

IDENTIFICATIONS:
Since the title indicates this sonnet was found in a mad-house, the first thought is that there is, quite possibly, no hidden meaning within the prose. A literal read would determine that this sonnet is about someone making breakfast -- cooking eggs and frying potatoes. After careful analysis, and considering the title, I think this sonnet is about repressed feelings, released from the hardened shell surrounding the heart, never to be contained again. Perhaps long smothered in a drug-induced haze, even if the memories are painful, the passion burning inside this anonymous writer will not be forgotten or suppressed.

The title: PERSONA in order to appeal to ETHOS. The CONNOTION of the word “Mad-House” implies that the person who wrote this ‘found’ Sonnet was insane.

Line 1 starts with the METAPHOR of a marrow-bone – a wish that the writer’s soul could be protected by a thick shell surrounding the soft tissue inside.

Line 2 moves to another METAPHOR, comparing not just the egg (representing the heart) is broken, but the “old” egg signifying a past hurt. The verb ‘spilled’ describes something that may have accidentally been released instead of purposely poured.

Lines 2 and 3 introduces the VEHICLE (the egg), a COMMONPLACE, clearly recognizable item.

Line 4 and Line 8 set the sad mood with EPITHETS of “mild melancholy contents” [of the heart] and “mournful mouth”. But then they are contradicted by METAPHORS of “grease my path” (lines 4 and 5), “thrilling recitation” and “filled full with mirth” (line 8).

Line 5 is an ANALOGY where the “shorn lamb baas like bumblebees” meaning an innocent, helpless creature’s cries were like the constant hum of the bees.

Lines 6, 8, 10, and 11 are liberally laced with ALLITERATION.

“Times” “trashy” “taken” “token”
“mournful” “mouth” “mirth”
“filled” “full”
“find” “frittered” “fig” “felt” “fast”
“choose” “chase” “cheese” “churn”

Line 5 and 8 end in a RHYME “bumblebees” and “cheese” broken by
Lines 6 and 7 using RHYME with “token” and “spoken”. Then
Lines 9, 11 and 13 RHYME with ‘urn”, “churn” and “burn” followed by
Lines 10, 12 and 14 RHYMING with “fast”, “past” and “blast”:

Line 8 is ANTITHESIS with a “mournful mouth” “filled full with mirth”.

Lines 9, 10, 11, and 12: RHETORICAL QUESTIONS asking why keep a grip on reality if it only serves to close of the mind and heart again. The questions are also HYPOPHORA with the answers provided in the sestet. These lines are also EPIPLEXIS, appealing to the PATHOS of the reader.

Lines 9, 10, 11, and 12 are a TETRACOLON of questions.

There is PARALLELISM in the structure of Lines 9,10, and 11 with each sentence having 9 words ending with a question mark.

Line 11 seemed to be a CATACHRESIS because how exactly does one “chase the cheese around the churn”? It might mean that it involves hard work to make cheese by yourself (or heal oneself) but it seems a stretch.

Lines 13 and 14 is a direct denial to Love (PERSONIFICATION) reiterating that as long as the memory of the passion remained, the writer would chose not return to the shell.

Lines 13 and 14 sum up the TENOR with “Love” being the catalyst that released the bottled up emotions. The last METAPHOR of the potato sizzling in the heat of the skillet leaves a picture of a passion of the heart that is so intense it is seared into the mind.

______________

Kia Cooper
2/20/06

On My First Daughter

1 Here lies, to each her parents’ ruth,
2 Mary, the daughter of their youth;
3 Yet all heaven’s gifts being heaven’s due,
4 It makes the father less to rue.
5 At six months’ end she parted hence
6 With safety of her innocence;
7 Whose soul heaven’s queen, whose name she bears,
8 In comfort of her mother’s tears,
9 Hath placed amongst her virgin-train:
10 Where, while that served doth remain,
11 This grave partakes the fleshly birth;
12 Which cover lightly, gentle earth! (Ben Jonson)

In Jonson’s sonnet about his deceased daughter, Mary, he is presenting a pathetic appeal to create sympathy in the reader for the death of Jonson’s infant child. Jonson uses PATHOS to appeal to the audiences emotions, such as in line 8 when he speaks of “her mother’s tears,” so that in some small way the audience will experience the grief that he and his wife experienced when this child was lost. He calls the child a gift from heaven and describes how after only six months of living she returned to heaven still with complete innocence. Also the fact that this is their first child, as emphasized in line two, while they are still young is significant as well. That is why the poem is titled “On My First Daughter.” A mother/parent knows there is no greater love than the love formed for a first born child.

In line one, Jonson starts out with an ENCOMIUM with the words “Here lies...” Many eulogies start off in this fashion so the reader automatically knows that someone has passed away.

In line three, Jonson uses a paradox with the statement, “Yet all heaven’s gifts being heaven’s due.” Jonson makes this statement to say that heaven’s gifts, though the most joyous of gifts, are temporary such as life. Unlike the usual meaning of gift, something that someone gives you to keep, heavens gifts are borrowed for a time and must be returned to sender when He sees fit.

In line four Jonson uses HYPERBATON when he states “less to rue,” to describe the father. I think Jonson really wanted emphasis here because he is the father.

In line five Jonson attempts to keep the soft innocent tone of the poem by using a EUPHEMISM
“At six months’ end she parted hence,” this is more appropriate for the tone of the poem than saying she died when she was six months old. The thought that Jonson is trying to convey is that Mary did not actually die, she just parted from her earthly life and parents to return to her heavenly home with God.

In line six, Jonson uses METONYMY when using the word innocence to describe the fact that his daughter died a virgin. It just sounds better to use the word innocence when you are describing a six month old child.

In line seven Jonson uses a METAPHOR by comparing his deceased child to the queen of heaven, Mary, whom his daughter shares a name with. Mary is sometimes referred to as the Virgin Mary. A level of innocence that Jonson is attributing to his daughter as well.

Jonson also uses CONNOTATION in lines 9 and 11 to contrast his daughters birth into a fleshly world with her death at a young age with her virginity and innocence in tact. This is significant because besides the actual meanings of the words innocence, virgin, and fleshly; people associate all kinds of ideas with these terms. Jonson is displaying the Victorian ideal of beauty in the death of the young, pure, Godly soul before the world has been able to introduce its sin, sex, and bitterness.

In lines 11 and 12, Jonson uses PERSONIFICATION calling the earth “gentle” and birth “fleshly.”
_____________________

The following Shakespearean sonnet was squeezed by student Joanne Mueller in 2002--one of the models that I encouraged you to look at before attempting the exercise.

James Cambre

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNET 129

1 The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
2 Is lust in action: and till action, lust
3 Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
4 Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
5 Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;
6 Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
7 Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,
8 On purpose laid to make the taker mad.
9 Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
10 Had, having, and in quest to have extreme;
11 A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
12 Before, a joy proposed; behind a dream.
13 All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
14 To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

Overall, this sonnet is based on the idea of antithesis with a bit of an anticlimactic spirit. With the exception of lines 1, 3, and 4, it is built on a parallel or isocolonic structure that often teeters on either a coordinate or subordinate conjunction (“and”, “but”, “yet”), or a comma, or a semicolon, or just a colon, and sometimes a combination. This structural balancing act of each line creates a simple syllogism with a premise and a conclusion. Notice line 12, “Before, a joy proposed; behind a dream”, where there is a blatant grammatical similarity when compared to the much of the lines because there is the proposal of some great pleasure, some great anticipation, but ultimately there is an anticlimactic result. The steep slope from the climbing anticipation and the beginning of a line is followed by an abyssal conclusion at the end making this poem at once dramatic, but also didactic. This antithetical structure of the lines is emblematic of the poem’s very thesis; that being a slave to carnal appetite leads one to a destructive end. The whole sonnet in tone is rather epidictic regarding lust.

Lines 3&4: ASYNDETON, INVECTIVE/SYNATHROESMUS, PARALLEL. These two lines in the poem are the most noticeable devices of rhetoric in that they seem to form a simply list, with lack of conjunctions (asyndeton), but notice the blame heaped upon lust, eventhough its an abstract thing. These two lines form a rather effective synathroesmus that is in spirit invective. Also, the order of the list does take some significance here as it seems to lack climax. The adjectives go from “murderous” to “not to trust” connoting a reflection of the entire content of the poem, from something potent and powerful to something disintegrating and dissembling. Each line is also grammatically parallel with each line containing the same number of syllables (I don’t know how valid a point that is considering that it is a sonnet) and words, but more importantly, both lines echo equal beginnings and endings denoted by each comma splice

Lines 5, 11, 12, 14: ANTITHESIS. This is perhaps the most prominent rhetorical form in the poem as it conveys the best sense of consequence, thus lending itself to being very didactic. Each of the selected lines make use of juxtaposing antonym-ish words like “enjoyed” with “despised” (l. 5); and “bliss” with “woe” (l. 11); and “before” with “behind” (l. 12); and, finally, “heaven” with “hell” in line 14.

Lines 6&7: ANAPHORA, METAPHOR. These two lines are heavily and obviously anaphoristic, each beginning with the same two words (and almost the third), but the implied analogy of perhaps catching a fish or laying a trap figures more prominently into to poem as a whole. The metaphor connotes an image of a fish on a line that, after having taken the bait, is struggling for its life but it will meet its finale as it tires and its spirit slowly evaporates, at which point the creature dies. A bit worse than going blind or hair growing on your knuckles, but if it works, it works.

Lines 9, 10, & 11: POLYPTOTON. This is the second most prevalent rhetorical scheme in the sonnet as it directly reinforces the rhythm of these three lines as well as their dramatic impact. It is done lightly in line 9 with “pursuit” and “possession” but the definition of each word is entwined with the other. That is, you do not possess without pursuit, nor do you pursuit without the intent to possess. The scheme is much more straightforward in lines 10 using the same theme of possession evinced in the previous line but repeating the word three times in three different forms; that’s pretty good. Line 11 leaves the possession motif and moves into effect of that possession with the polyptotonic use of “proof” and “proved”.

Lines 2&14: CHIASMUS. If chiasmus can be divided into differing degrees then line 2 seems to be a much lighter form than line 14 as, if the two were compared, the former leads into an invective whereas the latter leads to a rather conclusive antithesis. Yet each remains exemplary of chiasmus with the inversion of the words (“lust” with “action”, and, “knows” with “well”), and the isocolonic structure of each half of the line. That is, they are separated by some mark of punctuation, either a colon or semicolon, or by some conjunction that allows the line to balance on its middle like it is supported by a fulcrum. This is supported by the visual symmetry founded in the repetition on either side of each lines fulcrum.

The following sonnet was squeezed by student Michelle Rhodes in 2005.

Emilie Tuminella

Claude McKay, AMERICA

1 Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
2 And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,
3 Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
4 I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
5 Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
6 Giving me strength erect against her hate.
7 Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.
8 Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,
9 I stand within her walls with not a shred
10 Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
11 Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
12 And see her might and granite wonders there,
13 Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand,
14 Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.

The Jamaican writer and poet directly encounters life in America from an African American point of view. The harsh realities of racism and hatred are elements he addresses with a pathetic appeal. He refers to America by the pronoun “her” and states the dominating power “she” has over the black race, which is understood to be quite a challenge. Interestingly, the use of “her” could in fact state the pyramid of hierarchy at that time. It being white men, white women, black men, and then finally, black women.

It is as if McKay knows the hardships he is up against, and even though it will be a difficult journey he is doing it alone. He has the confidence to stand alone, against the torture, but as for the others he cannot say, “Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand”.

EFFECTIO- Line 8,9,and 10 states a personal description of personal triumph. He considers himself a rebel, a man who will never indulge in defeat, “Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state”. “I stand within her walls without a shred of terror, malice, not a word of jeer”. He is not a man of fear, a spiteful man, or a sarcastic man.

EPIDEICTIC- Line 1,2, and 3 McKay blames “America”. He said, “…she feeds me bread of bitterness…sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth…Stealing my breath of life”.

EPITHET- Line 13 and 14 emphasize the subject. “…unerring hand” and “…priceless treasures”

ETHOPOEIA- McKay expresses himself and his perception of American culture through the idea of America as a women (person) who, probably, in his life had treated him as a slave to society. Someone, who could never be released from the stigma and misconceptions from his or her past realities. HE said in line 5 and 6, “Her vigor flows like tides into my blood, Giving me strength erect against her hate”.

HOMOIOITELEUTON- This pattern of similar sounds at the end of words is current throughout the sonnet. Last words are:
1 bitterness-3 confess
2 tooth-4 youth
5 blood-7 flood
6 hate-8 state
9 shred-11 ahead
10 jeer-12 there
13 hand-14 sand

METAPHOR- Line I, 2 and 7 in the sonnet are metaphors. America is used in reference a tiger’s tooth, a mother who feeds her children rotten bread, and floods of water that drown and engulf any hope of survival. These parallel ideas embody what was actually going on during segregation, hate riots, and civil rights.

RUNNING STYLE- McKay refers to the problem of poor treatment of the black race in a still segregated society. He works through the problem by expressing himself through the personal knockdowns and his interest in the outcome. He said, “Darkly I gaze into the days ahead…And see her might and granite wonders there…Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand…Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.”

Tara Gergacs
2/20/06
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

1 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6 And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
11 Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
12 When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
13 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
14 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

The Rhetorical Situation:
The situation in this sonnet is the speaker is trying to persuade the reader to think that this person is more beautiful than the seasons. He compares this person to the summer. The speaker then builds the person’s beauty to something that can be judged.

Line 1: RHETORICAL QUESTION: �Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?� The speaker thinks we already know whom he is talking about, but we do not. APOSTROPHE: The speaker is talking about someone who is not there.

Line 2: ENCOMIUM: �Thou art more lovely and more temperate.� The speaker praises her beauty.

Line 3: ONOMATOPOEIA: �Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.� The reader can hear the wind and the flowers moving through a natural sound of word imitation.

Line 4: ALLITERATION: �And summer’s lease hath all too short a date� The repetition of the �s� sound in this line.

Line 5: HYPERBATON: �Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,� It is also a METAPHOR: The eye of heaven is the sun.

Line 6: HYPERBATON: �And often is his gold complexion dimm’d.� The reason why these lines are hyperbaton is because �too hot� and �often is� are altered changing the language. The lines should read, �Sometime the eye of heaven shines too hot and his gold complexion is often dimmed.�

Line 7: DIACOPE: �And every fair from fair sometimes declines,� Fair and fair is broken up by and.

Line 9: METAPHOR: �But thy eternal summer shall not fade.� The life instead of beauty will not fade.

Line 11: APOSTROPHE and PERSONIFICATION: �Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade� Death is not there and also death is bragging. A person brags.

Line 13: SIMILE: �So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,� The speaker is saying that as long as men can breath and see they will know what beauty is.

Line 13 and 14: ANAPHORA: �So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, � �So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.� Both of these quotes repeat the same word at the beginning.

Mary Culp

William Shakespeare, SONNET CXVI

1 Let me not to the marriage of true minds
2 Admit impediments. Love is not love
3 Which alters when it alteration finds,
4 Or bends with the remover to remove.
5 O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
6 That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
7 It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
8 Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
9 Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
10 Within his bending sickle's compass come;
11 Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
12 But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
13 If this be error and upon me prov'd,
14 I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

RHETORICAL SITUATION:
Shakespeare is arguing that love is something very different from the common idea of it, which seems to be more like infatuation. Love is far more serious and should be treated that way.

EPIDEICTIC
This sonnet is epideictic in that it praises the concept of love as an ideal. The characteristics Shakespeare attributes to love are constants and everlasting; they are noble.

DIACOPE
Line 2, “Love is not love…”calls the audience to look more closely at the usual notion of love and contemplate the picture of love that Shakespeare is painting.

POLYPTOTON
“Which alters when it alteration finds,/
Or bends with the remover to remove” (Lines 3-4).

APOSTROPHE
Love is addressed in line 10, “Within his bending sickle’s compass come.”

CLIMAX
The lines of the poem show a progression in degree of the serious nature of love. Moving from a characterization of a constant that doesn’t float from one pretty girl with “rosy lips and cheeks”(line 9) to the next to the imagery of “doom”(line 12).

METAPHOR
“It is an ever-fixed mark/
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;/
It is the star to every wand'ring bark” lines 5-7. Love is compared to constant, tangible things in human experience.

ALLITERATION
There are a lot of examples in this sonnet of alliteration. The examples of diacope can be used for this, as well as like in line 10, “sickles compass come.”

PERSONIFICATION
“Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,/
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.”(lines 11-12). Love is contrasted with human qualities in that it is compared to something living which deteriorates over time, but it does not, according to Shakespeare.

TESTIMONY
“If this be error and upon me prov'd,/
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd”(lines13-14). Shakespeare gives his own opinion on love, and puts his own work on the line.

Autumn Flynn
February 20, 2006

[Love Is Not All: It Is Not Meat nor Drink]
by 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 can not 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 pain 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 well may be. I do not think I would.

Millay begins the sonnet by defining love as an abstract concept that has little to do with immediate physical needs. These first two quatrains are, for the most part, generalized and in the third person. In line 8, however, Millay breaks the pattern by declaring, “Even as I speak.” This introduces the pattern for the sestet, in which the speaker discusses their own love. It is revealed in line 12, that the audience is actually a lover, and the setting is nighttime (“this night”). Millay (or, the speaker), although still subscribing to the “love is a mere abstraction” enthymeme, declares that she would not trade love for relief from physical stress. This sonnet then states: “Even though love is an abstraction and cannot physically aid me, I would not trade it for any physical comfort or relief.”

ENTHYMEME:
As previously stated, the main enthymeme of this sonnet is that “Love is an abstraction that cannot provide for physical necessities.” This use of enthymeme is useful because Millay defies it eventually without denying it’s literal truth.

METAPHOR:
This sonnet is packed full of metaphors. By saying love is not something, it is still a metaphor because it defines what love is through what it is not. Hence, “Love can not . . . set the fractured bone” is a metaphor because it likens love to a cast or a doctor. There are metaphors in nearly every line, and there are many more terms to go!

EXERGASIA:
Lines 1-6
Millay illustrates her point that “love cannot provide for basic physical necessities” through this list of needs. While these needs such as “breath,” “slumber,” and “meat” are very real, in this usage they are figures of speech. They are figurative because it is common knowledge that love cannot provide for such needs.

ACCUMULATION:
Lines 1-6
This list of figures is accumulation as well. While all of them can be put in a list titled, “Physical Needs,” the specific ones Millay chose are somewhat arbitrary. This accumulation shows how many different problems love cannot solve.

ALLITERATION:
Lines 1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 11.
Millay uses alliteration in order for the sonnet to have an interesting sound. The similar sounds (“roof,” “rain”) coupled with variations give the poem a rhythm. The alliteration also serves to link certain ideas together (“roof,” “rain”; “lack of love”).

ANAPHORA:
Lines 2-3, 5 “Nor”
Lines 11, 13 “Or”
The first two quatrains serve to explain what love isn’t. Thus, the repetition of “nor” (along with the rhythm it creates) is appropriate for the beginning. The sestet is about the possibilities of the speaker’s feelings, so the aporia of “or” is also appropriate. It also echoes “nor” through rhyme.

POLYSYNDETON:
Line 4 “And rise and sink and rise and sink again;”
This clever use of polysyndeton actually mimics the motion of the “floating spar.” This also creates a unique rhythm for the line.

ANTITHESIS:
Line 14: “I do not think I would.”
Millay probably chose this line for a few reasons. First of all, she needed some more syllables to reach iambic pentameter. Secondly, it stands out because it turns on her original argument, just like most good sonnets should.

APORIA:
Lines 9, 12, 14
Aporia only appears in the sestet because the speaker is talking about her feelings. This part of the sonnet is more thoughtful. Even though there is feigned doubt, the audience knows how the speaker really feels. This doubt gives the poem an interesting turn from the surety of the opening. In contrast, the doubt seems more honest than the in-your-face ethos of the first two quatrains.

LITOTES:
Lines 9, 14.
The litotes of these lines lie in the phrases, “It well may be” and “I do not think” Even though the speaker uses these qualifiers, they bring attention to themselves and the audience consequently finds them to be false. As mentioned before, doubt in the face of surety seems more sincere.

SPREZZATURA:
Sestet
This, of course, is in line with aporia and litotes. Millay uses sprezzatura in the sestet to reflect the speaker’s true feelings. Because love is so abstract, she cannot be as sure about what it is. Rather, she can be surer what it is not (as in the quatrains).

PERSONIFICATION:
Line 7, 10.
Millay describes “death” and “pain” in terms of human behavior. In the world of the sonnet, a man can “mak[e] friends with death,” and pain can “pin” her down. This colorful language gives the sonnet life and illustrates her points in an exciting way. It also adds drama to the sonnet, showing the stakes of love and what it is worth to the speaker.

Leslie Moses
2-20-06
From The Temple, by George Herbert:
The Sinner

Lord, how I am all ague, when I seek
What I have treasur’d in my memorie!
Since, if my soul make even with the week,
Each seventh note by right is due to thee.
I finde there quarries of pil’d vanities,
But shreds of holinesse, that dare not venture
To shew their face, since crosse to thy decrees:
There the circumference earth is, heav’n the center.
In so much dregs the quintessence is small:
The spirit and good extract of my heart
Comes to about the many hundred part.
Yet Lord restore thine image, heare my call:
And though my hard heart scarce to thee can grone,
Remember that thou once didst write on stone.

In The Sinner, Herbert bemoans his heart’s sad condition in a prayer, seeking God’s mercy. Herbert chiefly uses metaphor to compare his state to lesser things.
Metaphors
Ln 1 self as a sickness
Ln 2 memory as a bank
Ln 3-4 days of the week as notes/bill that are due
Ln 5 soul as a mine; vanities as piles of rubbish in a query
Ln 6 holiness as a tangible measurable substance, in Herbert’s account, shreds
Ln 8 vanities as the earth; holiness as heaven
Ln 9 dregs as vanities
Ln 10 a heart’s goodness as a measurable extracts

Personification
Ln 6 holiness as able to venture out
Ln 7 holiness as with a face (Herbert says his holiness is so small that he is ashamed to show it

Pun
Ln 7 cross to thy decree “cross” as being in contrast to God’s decree of humility, “cross” a reference to Christ’s humility

Exergasia
The whole poem builds from the idea of a “Sinner,” with humble comparisons to lesser things—dregs (ln 9), vanities (5), and ultimately dead, hardened (ln 13) stone (ln 14).

Apposition
Ln 10 “the spirit and good extract of my heart”

Paradox
Ln 13 “though my hard heart scarce to thee can groan” –It seems like he’s done ok at expressing his concern with groans but he does this to say he’s only scratched the surface

Hyperbole
Ln 1 “I am all ague”—to say he is consumed by his sinfulness as one is when they are sick with a fever, it affects even the healthy part with lethargy and chills

Metonymy
Ln 1 “I am all ague”—his whole being, not just the parts affected by illness, is consumed as a sinner

Epithet
Ln 13 “hard heart”—his condition though alive with frailty, is stubborn and difficult to change

Alliteration
Ln 13 “hard heart”
Ln 5,6 “vanities” “ventures”
Ln 7 a series of “s” sounds in “shew their face, since crosse to thy decrees”

Amplification
Lns 1, 5,9,10 the title “The Sinner” is expanded on throughout this poem to be “all ague,” with “pil’d vanities,” “In so much dregs,” “The…good extract/…about the many hundred part”

Pleonasm
Ln 14 “Remember that thou once didst write on stone” –Herbert assumes the reader knows the biblical reference of God writing commandments on Moses’ stone tablets and concludes the sonnet with hope that if God has done it before, He can do it again

Apostrophe
Ln 12 “Yet Lord, restore…”
Ln 14 “Remember…”
These direct appeals to God for help, before he was expressing himself to build up to these points

Bisceglia Coleman

Ernest Dowson, A LAST WORD
1 Let us go hence: the night is now at hand;
2 The day is overworn, the birds all flown;
3 And we have reaped the crops the gods have sown;
4 Despair and death; deep darkness o'er the land,
5 Broods like an owl; we cannot understand
6 Laughter or tears, for we have only known
7 Surpassing vanity: vain things alone
8 Have driven our perverse and aimless band.

9 Let us go hence, somewhither strange and cold,
10 To Hollow Lands where just men and unjust
11 Find end of labour, where's rest for the old,
12 Freedom to all from love and fear and lust.
13 Twine our torn hands! O pray the earth enfold
14 Our life-sick hearts and turn them into dust.

Rhetorical Situation
In this sonnet a man seems to be speaking to his fellow peers. The men have been working all day in a somewhere outside. All of them are tired and the speech is being given to encourage them to keep on working. As the men continue they gain freedom through their work. The problems that arise are minor compared to their happiness.

Let us go hence (lines 1and 9)-ANAPHORA
Despair and death; deep darkness o'er the land, (line 4)-ALLITERATION
Broods like an owl (line 5)- SIMILE
Surpassing vanity: vain things alone (line 7)-ANADIPOLIS
Freedom to all from love and fear and lust (line 12)- BDELYGMIA

SONNET SQUEEZING (2006) continues here

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English 5730 is taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist.
Armstrong Atlantic State University
Savannah, Georgia 31419
912-921-5991