Suburbia!

Analysis by Sarah Phillips

Through our class study of sonnets I’ve learned that Sonnet sequence isn't about plot, it’s about investigating the subtle psychology of love. In his 1822 sonnet “On the Rapid Extension of the Suburbs,” John Thelwall does just that, only he speaks of his love for nature and the crushing impact that the rise of suburbia is having on the beauty and mythical, almost magical qualities of Mother Nature. Although the 18th century was virtually void of sonnets, Thelwall snuck this one in, so to speak, at the beginning of the century, still in the mindset of the 17th century. It was at the end of the 17th century that Milton revamped sonnets and said “hey! We can write them about anything!” Although the topic of love for nature lost does fall a bit outside the lines of traditional earlier sonnets, this isn’t the only aspect of this poem that does the same thing. The rhyme scheme of this particular poem is ABAB BCAC ADE EDA. This is misleading because at first the reader believes that it is going to be a Spenserian but because it doesn’t end in a couplet it switches to more of a Petrarchan sonnet. I think that this switch is a way of signaling the volta between lines 8 and 9 in which the poem Switches from speaking of the nature that used to be to the "domes of tasteless opulence" that is the suburbs. Conceit is evident in this poem as the old beautiful, mystical natural state of things in the first half of the poem is being contrasted to the over-opulent new houses and construction in the second half.