Words: 543
Being a sonnet, the poem has a tightly structured thematic organization. It consists of three quatrains and one rhyming couplet with a succession of Decca-syllabic lines. Let has a rhyming scheme where the first line rhymester the third one and the second line with the fourth one that is an “ABA” pattern. Most words carry the weight of negative connotation which Is conveyed In simple language. Where words are used metaphorically, the are meant to portray a deep sense of pain felt in epithets or double negative words pain’, “endless tenements”, “cruelty disgrace”. The mom evolves around the most famous theme of poetry: unarticulated love.
Compared to the poem “Why So Pale and Wan? ” which is the point of view of man and a second person, “sonnet 1 1 ” is the point of view of a woman who I expressing her own feelings. The first quatrain are innovative as the persona rhetorically draws attention to his plight, of unending love agony, asking when it would all end. The alliteration in ‘s’ in the first line emphasizes the sadness and suffering resented by the poet. The tone is set in the first line itself: a tone of reproach, melancholy and desperation. Further, it Is important to note the personification of “Love”, which is the subject matter of the poem.
Lady Mary Wroth uses “endless torment” to associate the emotions of the poem with acute suffering and torture brought by loss of love. She contrasts this with the feeling of “delight” from Love as If It enjoys Its power to destroy Its victims. M. The poet Is at the mercy of love; she feels she cannot have her lover where “never” implies eternal suffering. She even questions whether she can live with the pain in the fourth line as she feels that this pain with last forever. The use of the caesura demonstrates the irony that although she is living,it is in despair.
In the second quatrain, her anger subsidizes into pathetic sobs. She actually begs her love to ‘now stay and wants to avoid the ‘sharp distress’ of a sudden and unexpected ending. It’s a little odd, as if she is asking for a gradual break-up Just so it doesn’t feel like a sudden wounding. She wants to avoid that sting of hearing “it’s over. There is an enjambment from the first line to the second which reinforces the poet desire to “end” her suffering. Further In the third quatrain, Next, she seems to e threatening ‘Love’ with ruining his reputation by associating him with ‘cruelty and blaming Hal for her ‘rage’.
She feels that rejection, rage and pain are all targeting only her. Yet, It seems that the poet still respects Love, as she claims It to have a ‘honored title” interpretation whether she is pleading to Love or to the reader to help her. ‘O quickly end’ means she is begging for immediate help and the last phrase – ‘lest help do come too late’ – implies that if she is not helped soon she will die; this sounds like a threat that she will commit suicide to rid of pain; there is an element of emotional blackmail.