Discussion Question for Wordsworth's River Duddon Sonnets

1. What conventions of the sonnet form does Wordsworth rely on or refer to in your poem? Does he update or comment upon these traditions? How so?

2. What are the two most important words in the poem? What is their significance?

3. What is happening in the speaker’s mind in the poem? How does his attitude change over the course of the poem?

4. What duality or opposition does the poem present? How does Wordsworth comment on that opposition?

Groups:

Sonnet I Quinn Noah Andy Jon Poplin Elizabeth	Sonnet II Rebecca Scott Danielle Victoria Jane	Sonnet III Cierra Jamison Joshua Kimberly Nathan
Sonnet IV Mattisha Daniel Brent Jon Achorn Jonathan Young	Sonnet V Emanuela Zoey Sarahbeth Kevin Kristina	Sonnet VI Jacinda Leslie Bethany Chris Sarah

Another Rhetoric Term for You: Litotes

A rhetorical figure in which a statement is made by denying it’s opposite, e.g.:

From Beowulf:

“The hall he scanned.
By the wall then went he; his weapon raised
high by its hilts the Hygelac-thane,
angry and eager. That edge was not useless
to the warrior now.”

Acts 21:39

Paul answered, "I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people."

Everyday phrases:

“not bad”
“no big deal”

Typically (and this is particularly example in the everyday phrases listed above), litotes is used as a form of understatement. However, poets often use this figure in more sophisticated ways. Often, it is used to preserve a sense of ambiguity; when something is described with litotes, you don’t actually know what it is, but merely what it is not.

Litotes can also bring to mind a richer mental image that describing something directly, since the structure often brings to mind both the thing being described and its opposite. For instance, when Wordsworth begins the first sonnet of The River Duddon sequence by saying he is “not envying” cool, shady Bandusia, he forces you to consider two things, both what it would mean to envy Bandusia and what it would mean to not envy Bandusia. As you can see, this construction lends itself well to Wordsworth’s interest in oppositional forces that we talked about in “Scorn Not the Sonnet,” and indeed Wordsworth uses this construction quite often in his sonnets.

Beckford's "Elegiac Sonnet to a Mopstick"

William Beckford’s “Elegiac Sonnet to a Mopstick” is a humorous parody of a mournful type of poem. He uses an English style sonnet to wittingly express his sorrow for the mopstick. He reminisces about where the mopstick had come from, using an enjambed form. The second stanza starts with the volta and switches to an end-stopped form to emphasize this change; it tells of the current dreadful state the mopstick is in.
The first quatrain starts off with a gentle tone as he recalls the wood before it was turned into a mopstick. The tone is significant because it is showing a more pleasant time, when it was attached to the tree and living rather than dead and detached and basically put to work. He brings about a type of blazon to this poem by naming different parts of the stick such as the leaves and the bark. The second quatrain more so brings about an enjambed form to this stanza emphasizing the chaotic nature of this section. It is chaotic because the stick has become the mop and Beckford’s heart is skipping at the thought of it.
The second stanza begins with both the third quatrain and the volta. As we have learned a volta is a turning point in a sonnet, and in this poem it is done through a change in time. At this point in the poem he realizes that he has to come to terms with the fate of the stick. He reminisces one last time of the “glory days” of the stick, and sheds a tear for the life it has now. This thought trickles down into the couplet as he compares the troubles of the mopstick to the troubles of the world.
I found this poem’s use of the English form to intriguing for it separates the third quatrain from the other two while connecting it with the couplet. It still is able to stays true to many sonnets as it maintains the common use of having the volta in the ninth line. I also enjoyed the humorous nature of this poem as it pokes fun of depressing sonnets of the time and gives a more satirical and enjoyable outlook.

River Duddon V

In the fifth poem about the River Duddon, Wordsworth literally describes nature as it grows around the river. The “sullen mosses” and “craggy mound” are soon filled with “green alders” and “birch-trees.” Later in the poem, Wordsworth points out a “rude and gray” cottage which is inhabited by a mother and children. Though the mother “carelessly” watches the children, they seem to be in no danger. In fact, they are nature’s “pleased associates” as they “sport through the summer day.” Although the poem does not contain much of a plot, the poem’s imagery with growth and color, and the poem’s diction point to the positive private relationship between humans and nature; specifically, nature links us to a divine being in heaven.

Throughout the poem, Wordsworth uses the image of growth to indicate this private relationship which develops away from society. First he describes the river’s eventual seclusion with the growth of the surrounding alders, birches and pines. He describes this event of growth to emphasize nature’s seclusion from society in a peaceful and trusting way. As Wordsworth mentions, though merely the “sullen moss” and “craggy mound” first surrounded the river as “unfruitful solitudes,” they eventually “came to “form a shade” for the river and made a “silver colonnade.” Just as the river is not let down by nature’s obligation to provide shade and protection, we are not let down by nature’s obligation to provide us with a trusting seclusion from society so that we can connect to God in a private manner. Wordsworth alludes to this private link with God when he notes the initial upset at the “unfruitful solitudes” for they “seemed to upbraid the sun in heaven. I believe that in this sentence, Wordsworth alludes to God as the sun of heaven and the disappointment in the bareness around the river surrounded only by “sullen moss” and a “craggy mound.” When the trees arise, even the river is “tempted here to rise” toward heaven in order to provide the private secluded space needed to connect with God.

Wordsworth also uses colors in images to emphasize the healthy private relationship between humans and nature. He notes the greenness of the alders, a color indicating health and newness, and he describes the children as ruddy, a word indicating that the children have “a fresh, healthy red color1”. The young and vibrant color of nature represents nature’s purity and link with goodness. Though seclusion in nature is often depicted in an intimidating way, Wordsworth depicts the seclusion in a positive way which promotes a relationship with God. In contrast to nature and the children, he describes the cottage as “rude and gray” because it takes away from the desired seclusion from society. The cottage represents man-made civilization which has interrupted the privacy of the woods. Describing the house as gray, a color of gloom, merely furthers the idea of favoring solitary interaction with nature.

The diction of the poem also hints at nature’s relationship that links humans with God. Firstly, Wordsworth uses words of personification to describe the river. Specifically, he describes the river as a “sole listener” who has a “clear voice.” Here Wordsworth directly links humans with God by giving the river the ability to listen to the speaker as well as the ability to speak for God. Wordsworth also uses diction to represent the positive relationship when he describes the children as “pleased associates” with the river. Though they have come from the “rude” cottage, the river is happy to have them there. Humans and nature have a positive nurturing relationship away from societal impact.

Elegiac Sonnet to a Mopstick

I chose the sonnet Elegiac Sonnet to a Mopstick, by William Beckford, because it is one of the most challenging poems that I have ever come across. I am usually confused by poems because of the different tones and vocabulary used by the author. My confusion towards this poem actually has very little to do with the vocabulary but has to mainly correspond to the format of the sonnet and the time shift within the two stanzas. From the title I assumed that William Beckford was writing a sad, mournful poem to a mopstick, which is why I was first intrigued by this poem.
One of the most complex components of this poem is trying to understand which rhyme scheme that this sonnet contains. From first glance of the sonnet, it may seem that this sonnet is Petrarchan because there are two stanzas that seem to be separated into an octave and a sestet. But after reading through, there is a couplet at the end of the sonnet, and Petrarchan sonnets are to never contain a couplet. So, I assumed that it would be Spensarian which is a rare form of sonnets, but the rhyme scheme is ABAB BABA CDCD EE, which does not follow the Spensarian scheme. Even though the rules say no, I am saying that this poem is a rare form of Petrarchan ending in a couplet, because the volta is between the octave and the sestet.
The volta is placed at this point in the poem because of the time shift that William Beckford infers. In the first four lines of the first stanza, I believe that Beckford is admiring the birch tree’s reflection in the water. Beckford seems to be sympathizing for the taking of a branch from the birch tree in order to make her mopstick. The next four lines of the first stanza, he continues to show remorse for the tree when saying “even stript as thou may be my beating breast”. It seems that Beckford thinks that she took the life out of the tree because now the tree will never be able to get that piece of life back.
In the beginning of the 2nd stanza, she says “So musing on I fare”, which shows Beckford moving forward in time. This is significant because it shows that after time, Beckford still feels saddened for the birch tree and the mopstick. In this second stanza Beckford seems to be comparing this mopstick to his own personal life troubles. In this stanza he seems to be emphasizing the first person by repeatedly saying “I”. Also, it seems as though at the end of the stanza he is writing alliterations, “Thee twirled, turn on the twisting of this troublous world”. The repeated sound of ‘t’ further brings out the uniqueness of this sonnet and the rareness of this type of style.
All in all, William Beckford writes a very unique poem by using unusual components of grammar. He is remorseful for the loss of the branch that was used for a human object which was taken from nature. This poem is very dark and mysterious, and after several read through and a blogpost I am still unsure of what this poem is truly about.

Sonnet V by Wordsworth

River Sonnet V
William Wordsworth represents the interconnected qualities of Nature in Sonnet V of his River Duddon Series. This Italian style sonnet, with an ABBA-ABBA-CDCDDC rhyme scheme, celebrates England’s River Duddon. The breeze, the water, the trees, the plants, and finally, the humans who coexist along Duddon are the subjects of Wordsworth’s ode to this favorite river of his childhood. This sonnet shows how they are all connected and reliant upon one another to create the beautiful scene that Wordsworth describes.
Wordsworth makes extensive use of personification in this sonnet. All of the natural forces have human associations. The breeze blowing across the river “play[s] with thy clear voice”, suggesting that the breeze is like a child, and the noise of the river is like a voice. The moss on the banks of the river is not described with an adjective normally used for a plant; instead, the moss is “sullen.” Duddon has also “tempted here to rise” a cottage, implying that the river itself built the cottage, not humans. The trees on the banks of the river “flung their arms around” the river, giving it shade, as if the trees were a mother protecting a child from the beating of the sun. Even nature itself is personified. Wordsworth portrays Nature as a lonely being, lying on “infant bosoms.”
In addition to this personification, Wordsworth also portrays takes these natural phenomena and shows how they are interconnected. The trees put their arms over the river, shading it from the sun, establishing a clear mother and child relationship between the trees and the river. The inverse situation is also true, though, because the trees can also be seen as the children of the river because they drink from the rivers water to grow tall. The humans living in the cottage are children of the river, because Wordsworth says the river has “tempted to rise” the gray cottage they live in. The trees, in turn, are also the parents and protectors of the humans because the cottage sits “’Mid sheltering pines.” The underlying idea behind all of this is that nature is an infinitely connected web, where all life depends on all other life. Wordsworth best encapsulates this idea in the last line of the poem, saying that “On infant bosoms lonely Nature lies.” Nature can be as great and grand as a river or the trees, but it is also part of and reliant on the smallest parts of life, like babies.
Wordsworth’s Sonnet V from his River Duddon Series celebrates life and nature in Italian sonnet form. It bears little if any resemblance to the Petrarchan sonnet, which often deals with heartbreak and unrequited love. There is a volta in the poem, after line 8, where Wordsworth switches from describing the strictly natural world to the human world, but the change is not very significant, considering the content and message of the poem. This transition to talking about humans is barely noticeable for a reason. Wordsworth’s point in this poem is to show how the natural world and the human world are truly not separate, which he gets across by showing the beauty of interconnectivity of the players in this river scene. All forms of life are unified under Mother Nature. Humans, like Wordsworth himself, are merely the “ruddy children”, “sport[ing] through the summer day”, being “carelessly watched” by their Mother.

Poetry Term of the Week: Alexandrine

An alexandrine is a line of six beats (twelve syllables), typically punctuated by a caesura, or pause, between the sixth and seventh syllables, or sometimes into 3 sections with caesuras after the 4th and 8th syllables. Often works in romance languages are written entirely in alexandrine, but in English verse alexandrine is typically used to break the meter in a poem that is otherwise written in iambic pentameter. Within this context, the alexandrine lines have an extra metrical foot.

When breaking up other lines of iambic pentameter, alexandrine often has the effect of slowing the poem’s rhythm, an effect that Alexander Pope cleverly illustrates in these lines from his poem “An Essay on Criticism:”

A needless alexandrine ends the song
that like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.

You may also remember that the Dryden poem we looked at a few weeks ago, “To the Memory of Mr. Oldham,” also contains an alexandrine.

But satire needs not those, and wit will shine
Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line:
A noble error, and but seldom made,
When poets are by too much force betrayed.
Thy generous fruits, though gathered ere their prime,
Still showed a quickness; and maturing time
But mellows what we write to the dull sweets of rhyme.

Though most of the poem is written in iambic pentameter couplets, the alexandrine line forms a triplet with the two preceding lines. This is called a “triplet alexandrine,” and during the 17th century it was popular to break up iambic pentameter with the occasional triplet alexandrine. However, after Jonathan Swift’s parody of this habit in his poem “Description of a City Shower,” few poets were willing to indulge in the poetic excess of the triplet alexandrine:

Sweepings from butchers stalls, dung, guts, and blood,
Drowned puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud,
Dead cats and turnips-tops come tumbling down the flood.

On Seeing the Elgin Marbles

In the poem “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles”, John Keats alludes to his ever present pain, frustration and anguish with his mortality. To describe this anguish, John Keats adopts a petrarchon style sonnet, with the octave describing his pain with mortality and the sestet exposing the origins of his pain. John Keats establishes the tone of the poem by stating in the first and second lines of the poem how his spirit is weak faced with the grim reality of his mortality. Keats elaborates his grief with mortality by comparing himself to “a sick eagle looking at the sky”. The conclusion of the poem, the sestet, reveals how John Keats anguish over his eventual death was triggered by him observing the Greek Elgin Marbles. By analyzing Keats use of enjambment, his use of simile, and the impact of Keats observing the Elgin Marbles, the struggle Keats have with his mortality is seen.

In the first octave of the poem, John Keats immediately displays his internal tension with his eventual death. This internal struggle and emotional grief is emphasized by the use of enjambment. Keats describes his spirit as being weak. His weakness is displayed in lines one through four as he describes how he is “unwilling to sleep” and how his “mortality weighs heavily” in his life. These phrases flow from line to line, only separated by a comma in the second line. This mirrors Keats emotional distress.

At the end of the first octave and going into the second octave, Keats alludes to images and uses comparisons to show his grief. One simile that I feel is most significant is the comparison of his internal struggle with mortality to that of “a sick eagle looking at the sky”. Though the eagle wishes he could fly, he is faced with the grim reality of his sickness. The eagle can only look to the sky in solace. Just like the eagle, Keats desires to live forever but is faced with the grim reality of his death.

The sestet of the poem reveals the origins of Keats’ grief. Keats observance of the “Grecian grandeur” or Elgin Marbles makes him desire immortality. Just how the Elgin Marbles immortal beauty withstands the test of time, Keats desires this immortality in reference to his life.

Mutablility

Wordworth’s, “Mutability,” is a very solitary poem; not too much is going on, there are not a lot of different elements or characters involved, and the diction seems to draw out the purposes of the poem. Its descriptions and depressing tone display a background for a funeral of a sudden death of female. Wordsworth continuously gave references to “change” throughout the poem, exemplifying the title that he gave the poem “Mutability,” which means change. The poem also glorifies nature and time and how they affects the natural beings in the world. It is believable that Wordsworth is enabling his readers to understand the powers that nature and time possess over individuals dead or alive.
Even though Wordsworth designed “Mutability” to be solitary and conserved, it is highly complex and filled with multiple descriptions of different things. The diction, for example features complexity. Words such as mutability, concord, rime, and avarice give the poem its complexity, but they are very significant words that draw out description and completion to the poem. For example, lines 7 through 8 describe how nature and time have the power to cause the body to decompose in comparison to “frosty [melting]”. Nature causes the frosty rime to melt away, in time, just as nature is the cause of decomposition over a period of time. Wordsworth also introduces sublimation in this poem. This is vital because it expresses the suddenness of the death of the female in lines 10 through 14.

“And is no more: drop like the tower sublime
Of yesterday…but could not even sustain some
Casual shout that broke the silent air,
Or the unimaginable touch of time.”

Wordsworth helps his readers to understand that it is unknown how the female has died (possibly because it is insignificant), but rather draw them to the attention that time and nature work hand-in-hand, at any given time.
The structure of the poem reveals an important reference to death. For example, “Mutability” appears to have a set structure of rhyme in the beginning first 8 lines ( ABBA ACCA), but it begins to dissolve in the last 6 lines (DAC DCA). Wordsworth probably reversed his rhyme scheme in order to draw a parallel between mutability/life vs. time/nature. A reader would expect, if the rhyme scheme was to continue, to end up being ADDA and ending in a couplet, or DAC DAC. His unique structure would not be successful unless he kept the poem solitary; adding too many characters, elements, and events to this sonnet would cause it to become confusing and enjammed.

On Seeing the Elgin Marbles

In John Keats’ “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles,” Keats uses strong imagery in describing his first experience at the Elgin Marbles, also known as the Parthenon Marbles. In doing brief research it has come to my knowledge that the Elgin Marbles originally existed at the Parthenon and other buildings of the Acropolis in Athens, but were removed by the 7th Earl of Elgin and eventually bought by the British government in 1816. This poem, being written in 1817, occurred just after Keats visited these marbles in a British museum and is littered with the emotions he felt at the time.
At first, the rhyme scheme is cluttered and shows little formal structure when compared to a typical sonnet. The first line ends in the word “Mortality,” which rhymes with no other line in the poem. This “lone wolf” of a word signifies the solidarity that Keats felt at the time when he first saw the exhibit in the museum. The sheer awe of these great sculptures left Keats in weak spirits. This one emotion leads Keats to darker and more serious emotions as well. Throughout the next four lines, or quatrain, Keats’ descriptions lead me to believe that he is extremely depressed and worried. He is worried about his imminent death (even though I doubt he actually knew he was about to die) after viewing sculptures of gods. Within this quatrain, it is evident that Keats was able to put a finger on the specific feelings he felt at this time because he could describe them while fitting them into a normal “AABB” rhyme scheme.
After the first quatrain or so, Keats uses intense imagery in his poem in order to mask the sad feelings he felt and rationalize his situation. In being in the presence of gods, Keats takes a sigh of relief in knowing that it is not his responsibility of “the cloudy winds to keep fresh for the opening of the morning’s eye.” At the same time, Keats is somewhat angered that he can even begin to think that it is a good thing that being the keeper of the morning winds is his responsibility. It is at this point that Keats’ emotions have begun to take over him. It is almost as if since he has been standing in the presence of sculptures of the gods, the “grandeur” that is associated with these sculptures has triggered a sort of self pity that Keats’ feels in his life he will not be able to amount to what these gods have amounted to. It is almost as if the gods are a means of giving a person a reality check. The person viewing the sculptures either realizes that he/she has a great load of work to do or comes to terms with the fact that he/she will not amount to anything special in the world. It is at this point, the very end of the poem, that Keats appears as if he has come to terms with the latter of the two options. This could also be viewed as the volta because Keats is no longer overwhelmed by emotion, but rather calm and serene with his newly embraced future. The hyphens between words in the last couplet show a slow process of letting go. The last word “magnitude,” is a word that does not rhyme with other words in the poem, signifying the same thing “mortality” did in the first line; that Keats is at peace with solidarity.

To the Autumnal Moon

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "To the Autumnal Moon" is a terrific allegorical sonnet in which Coleridge compares the Autumnal moon to Hope. He uses several structural techniques to support this metaphor. Coleridge uses paradoxical word parings, connections between first letters of words, and the Volta to convince the reader that the autumnal moon represents hope.
Several times throughout the poem Coleridge pairs two words with seemingly little connection or even opposite ideas, such as "Hope" and "the Autunmal Moon." The very first words of the poem are an example of this, as mild would hardly be used to describe a splendor of any sort. Similarly, a veil has quite opposite properties than "fleecy," yet that is how he describes it. Further, blackness is not something that one would typically think could be gathered, and its connotation is more of emptiness than togetherness. Another example of this antithesis is manifest in "placid lightning," which is an oxy moron, for lightening is anything but placid. All of these contrasting word pairings set up the ultimate paradoxical paring between the moon itself and the idea of hope.
He also uses alliteration and capitalization of the first letters of certain words to support his comparison between the autumnal moon and hope. In the first lines of the poem, he uses alliteration in multiples of twos which seem to be setting up a comparison between two things. The phrases "various-vested" and "wildly-working" create pairs in the reader's head right off the bat, helping to set up the ultimate pairing of the moon and hope. Further, the use of capitalization in certain words in the sestet makes it clear that he is talking about both the moon and hope throughout the poem. One might think that the comparison to hope is just one line thrown in there to help describe the autumnal moon, yet "Hope" is capitalized, as are "Despair" and "Care" later in the sestet. This link shows that it is hope that he is talking about, not just the autumnal moon as it appears on the surface.
Finally, it is the Volta itself that actually reveals the comparison he is trying to make throughout the poem. It is important to note, first, that although he is an English poet, this poem is written in Petrarchan style, which allows for several lines after the volta, rather than just two. These six lines begin with the volta itself, or the realization that the autumnal moon, what he has been describing throughout the poem so far, is like hope. Then he seems to run with this idea in the rest of the sestet, which is ambiguous in that these lines could easily be describing the autumnal moon, when in fact, they are describing Hope. When the reader looks back, he may then realize that the whole poem is in fact describing hope more than the autumnal moon.
This sonnet by Samuel Taylor Coleridge appears to be a simple ode to the autumnal moon. However upon closer inspection, it is really a comparison between the autumnal moon, with its beauty and promise, and hope, which is equally as beautiful and promising. Coleridge uses paradoxical pairings, alliteration and capitalization of first letters, and the volta to drive home his comparison to the reader.

The Sea View

The Sea View, written by Charlotte Smith, gives a vivid story of a shepherd who is laying on a mountain side, taking in the beautiful view.  The shepherd's description of the land and sea is very peaceful and calm, as well as paradisaical.  However, as he is observing this tranquil scene, "war-freighted ships" come in, and destroy the land and kill those inhabiting the land.  The last lines in the poem are "Ah! thus man spoils glorious works with blood," displaying how man has the ability to destroy the beauty of nature.  Using effective techniques, Smith exemplifies both the beauty of the world as well as the destruction instigated by mankind. 

I would argue that one of the most well used techniques by Smith is her ability to create a sense of

relaxation. The poem opens with a shepherd "reclining" on a soft turf. Her description as the sun as purple

also adds to the sense of peacefulness. Her description of the sea as "magnificent and tranquil" adds to the

feeling of total relaxation. Smith has captured in totality the serenity of the setting. 

Smith is even more effective in her writing when capturing man's destruction. She describes it as 

a "dark plague-spot by the demons shed." It's as if a plague, or a sickness, has overcome this beautiful scene,

corrupting nature, and taking away its beauty to replace it with death and blood. The use of the word "mangled"

is also effective, exemplifying the negative point of view that the author holds. Rather than discuss the

sadness felt by the death of another human being, the poem focuses on the pollution to nature itself that death

causes. In other words, I feel as if the author has almost taken an extreme stance against the human race,

so far as to take the side of nature over the side of her peers. Smith did an outstanding job of capturing

the tranquility of nature, and the destructive habits of humans, displaying both the beauty of peace as well as

the carnage of war.

"The Sea View" by Charlotte Smith

In her sonnet entitled “The Sea View,” Charlotte Smith describes a shepherd’s reaction to his view of a natural paradise that appears to be out of reach of the dirty and corrupting touch of human society. The eloquence with which she illustrates the virgin environment through his eyes using precise language and imagery is both perceptive and poetic, with descriptions that both invigorate our imaginations and make us yearn for the quietude and tranquility that the shepherd experiences while reclining on the soft turf.

However, even though the poem begins as a salutation to the awesome power and elegance of the natural world, Smith eventually turns to a darker and more pessimistic theme, introducing the “plague-spots” of human conflict and violence and the stains that they leave behind. She describes the warships and the dying victims as “fierce and red” pollution that utterly ruin the beautiful imagery of the sea. The poem is obviously a commentary on human society’s undeniable tendency to intrude into and destroy any haven that remains sheltered from human corruption, despite whether that intrusion’s intentions are harmful or benign. Human beings, Smith suggests, are blundering oafs, shattering every fragile ecosystem and environment with which they come into contact.

War has always been a blight upon the history of Mankind, causing and guaranteeing misery and hardship around every corner of our bloody existence. Charlotte Smith lived and wrote during an age of constant conflict and war, when nations were fighting for independence on one side and the retention of imperial colonies on the other. This poem is simply her attempt to uncover the brutalities and stains of conflict, and to show her disdain for mankind’s bloody additions to Heaven’s masterpiece. (280 words)

Life by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Zoey Russell

In the sonnet “Life” I assume by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the rhyme scheme seems to be written like a Spenserian sonnet but quickly takes a turn in the last quatrain. The two words “display” and “ray” agree with each other in that they rhyme but “portray” and “advance” do not agree with each other. This disagreement in rhymes kind of changes the original quatrain of CDCD to maybe CCDC. In the first quatrain, he is dreaming about crossing over a wide plain “where a native Otter sports his scanty stream”. He then goes on to say “Musing in torpid woe a sister’s pain” and then discovers that he is dreaming after the “glorious prospect” awoke him. In the next quatrain, he is speaking on his dream and how the “wood, meadow, verdant hill, and dreary steep” did his “eye ravished sweep”. The next quatrain and last couplet is mainly about him comparing his dream to his actual life. He states “May this (I cried) my course through life portray! Then goes on to say that knowledge and wisdom will come to him with each step that he takes. Coleridge portrays his life through a dream by using diction and persona.

One literary element that stands out is diction. Throughout the poem, Coleridge uses a mixture of old English and English to show how this dream he had relates to his coming life. In the first quatrain he uses “o’er”, “scanty”, “musing”, “torpid”, and “woe”. At first he is profound in his dream until he approaches the beautiful scenery which he refers to as the “glorious prospect”. The next quatrain uses diction such as “meadow”, “verdant hill”, “dreary steep”, and “ravished” to illustrate why he woke up from this dream and also how his life should be. The last quatrain and couplet uses “undarkened ray”, “dart”, “expanse”, “rapture”, “blissful”, and “trance” to demonstrate where his life is taking him. By using these words throughout the entire poem, Coleridge takes the readers through his dream and how his life should intertwine with his dream. “May this (I cried)” is an example to show how he wants his dream to become his life sometime in the future.

Another literary element that was presented in the poem is persona. Even though Coleridge only uses “I” twice in the entire sonnet, he still wants the readers to be captured in his sonnet that relates his dream to his life. The first quatrain begins with “As late I journeyed o’er the extensive plain”. Already he starts to incorporate his dream into his life as if he accomplished the goal of traveling across a plain. The second quatrain moves to him describing the “glorious prospect”. He starts to describe the scenery which contained “wood, meadow, verdant hill, and dreary steep”. The last quatrain which is connected to the couplet states “May this (I cried) my course through life portray! Basically his dream is fortune telling his life to come. He then goes on to state “New scenes of wisdom may each step display, And knowledge open as my days advance! This relates to quatrain two where he states “At every step it widened to my sight, wood, meadow, verdant hill, and dreary steep”. The “it” in quatrain three refers to “wisdom” in the second quatrain and the “wood, meadow, verdant hill, and dreary steep” in quatrain two are the stepping stones to his knowledge opening as his life progresses. By using persona, Coleridge illustrates how the dream foreshadows his life to come.

Throughout the poem, Coleridge uses diction and persona to demonstrate his ideology of his dream foreshadowing his actual life. Diction is used wisely with most of the appealing words in the first and second quatrains. Persona is only used twice, once in the first quatrain and once in the third quatrain but plays a major role entwining his dream into his actual life. The first line of the couplet states “My eye shall dart through infinite expanse” which means he will keep going on with his life with his eyes wide open. The second line of the couplet states “And thought suspended lie in rapture’s blissful trance” which means he will keep his mind open waiting for that heavenly dream to come true.

"Scorn not the Sonnet"

Wordsworth comments on the history and structure of the sonnet throughout the poem, “Scorn not the Sonnet.” In the first quatrain the speaker comments towards the critics of the sonnet that the strict structure of the sonnet is not actually to blame, it allowed Shakespere and Petrarch to express their feelings in a structured format. Similarly, the second quatrain has the same effect. The speaker once again talks about Tasso another famous poet and how the sonnet allowed him to express himself “a thousand times.” The speaker then talks about how it allowed Camoens, another famous poet to release built up grief and how the sonnet allowed some happiness when times were harsh. The third quatrain once again reveals how the sonnet allowed Spenser to “struggle through the dark ways.” Overall the first three quatrains reveal how the sonnet allowed some stability and way of expression during dark times. The last couplet is about Milton and how he went beyond the scope of sonnets and started writing prose, which became very influential and the new form of poetry. Wordsworth’s poem, “Scorn not the Sonnet,” uses rhyme scheme & structure, allusions, and word choice to comment on the strict structure of the sonnet.

Wordsworth uses allusions towards other historical poets throughout the poem to allude to the importance of the sonnet in the past. Wordsworth praises the sonnets ability to allow these poets to express themselves and give these poets a way to find a light and happiness in the world they lived in. However it is interesting, that all the poets he named had a great historical place in the changing structure of the sonnet. Petrarch, Shakespere, and Spenser all were influential in the changing structure of the sonnet. All three of these poets utalize a different form, the Italian, the Spenserian, and the Shakesperian. It seems as though Wordsworth is praising these poets for breaking out of the previous structure and trying something different. This is also true of Milton, where at the end of the poem Wordsworth comes right out to praise Milton for breaking the structure once again. The allusions of great poets in this poem allows the reader to see the importance of structure and also the importance of breaking the form of the traditional sonnet and trying something different.

Among reading, “Scorn not the Sonnet” it appears that the poem could either Shakesperian, Petrarchian, or Spenserian yet upon a closer look the rhyme scheme is actually abba acca dede ff. This variation in the structure of the poem proves to be a very important factor in the meaning of the poem. Wordsworth uses a variation of all three of these sonnets in his poem, “Scorn not the Sonnet.” Wordsworth is once again praising the use of change in poetry. Wordsworth is commenting on the structure of the sonnet and while doing so changes the rigid structure of the sonnet not once but twice in the second and third quatrains. The volta is at the 3rd from last line. Here it is apparent the point that Wordsworth is trying to make throughout the poem. Wordsworth is commenting on how while the sonnet did allow poets to express themselves the sonnet is very rigid, and difficult to work with. He praises Milton for breaking this favored structure for a more open structure that is easier to work with. Now there in the way from letting his ideas flow freely.

Wordsworth also uses word choice to reveal his theme of change as a good thing. Throughout the poem we see pairs of words such as key and unlocked, soothed and grief, and cheered and mild. Wordsworth shows that while the sonnet did help these historical poets express and reveal their deepest darkest feelings, the change is what allowed them to revolt and rebel against the rigid world they lived in. As expressed earlier the poets named earlier in the poem had an important historical place in the changes made in the sonnet throughout the years. By rebelling against the structure and form of the traditional sonnet it allowed the poets to “ease,” “sooth,” and be “gay.” This allowed the poets to maintain a sense of identity and express themselves during hard times.

Wordsworth’s use of allusions, structure, and word choice in “Scorn not the Sonnet,” allows the reader to gain a sense of how important change is in the realm of poetry. It allows the poets to express themselves on a deeper level, and allows them to rebel against society and restrictions. The constant change in structure allows poetry to constantly re-invent itself.