Use one of these sonnets/poems William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us” (505) or John Keats’ “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be” (516-17)
Your assignment is to give a close reading, or explication, of a sonnet or a poem in a related verse form. You should relate some element or elements of the sonnet’s (or poem’s) form – its particular form (Petrarchan, Spenserian, English or Shakespearean), certain of its significant metrical features, its use of enjambment, its use of alliteration, consonance, assonance, rhyme, etc. – to its content (or “meaning”); and/or explicate certain of its patterns of imagery, its use of metaphor, simile, irony, puns, etc., and explain how they relate to the sonnet’s conceit. Your paper should have a well thought out thesis about the particular, significant feature(s) of the sonnet or poem which you are going to explicate over the paper’s course, and a well organized argument which upholds that thesis via ample, direct, and correct citation of the text (i.e. the sonnet or poem).
Draw your critical terminology from the “Terms for Sonnets and Lyric Poetry” file posted to the course website; you do not, however, have to cite this as a source of any terminology which you employ (you can consider this terminology common knowledge). Beyond this, do not use any other secondary material in the completion of this assignment, although the Bedford introduction to “Poetry” may be drawn upon, but to that extent, you should cite the Bedford correctly in your “Works Cited” list. Also, in your finished essay do not try to explicate absolutely every formal feature or figurative aspect of the sonnet which you choose – although figuring out everything you can about what’s what in the sonnet before you formulate your thesis would be a very good idea. Rather, in your argument, focus on a few formal features of the sonnet or poem which you think can be related to its content in a significant way, and/or striking aspects of its imagery and/or its conceit, etc.
Finally, see the “Sonnet Analysis Guide” I’ve included below. Exploring and answering these questions is a good place to start with the analysis of the sonnet or poem you choose.
Sonnet/Poem Analysis Guide
1. Paraphrase the sonnet’s/poem’s meaning in general. What is the sonnet or poem
about (be as specific as you can) – ?
2. Paraphrase the sonnet or poem’s conceit, if it has one.
Note: Depending on the poem’s meaning/conceit, 1 and 2 can be combined.
3. Make a scansion of your sonnet or poem.
Do this by printing the poem out, double spaced, and then indicating the stressed and unstressed syllables as we have been doing so in class and in the tutorials. At this time, you should also number the lines of the poem for easy reference later on.
4. Give an account of any relationship you see between the sonnet or poem’s scansion, and what the sonnet or poem is about.
Note: Some sonnets are written in perfect iambic pentameter – although this is rare. If that is the case with the poem you have chosen, you must still say something about how this “perfection” of the poem’s meter can be related to its content (the above “general meaning”).
5. Mark the sonnet or poem’s rhyme scheme.
a) i) If it is a sonnet, mark its quatrains, octave, sestet and (if it has one) its
couplet, indicate where its turn is, and indicate what type of sonnet it is. ii) Is there any possible relationship between the sonnet’s subject matter, and the author’s choice of sonnet form? b) And, over-all: do you see any significance in the use of rhyme/the poet’s overall choice of form for the sonnet? Do you see any relationship, that is, between the poet’s choice of form – in the form of the rhyme scheme for the sonnet – and its content? c) If the poem isn’t a sonnet, what structure does it have in terms of the its meter and rhyme scheme (i.e. what is the structure of its stanzas), and how might there be a relationship between that and its content?
Note: Part b)/c) is where you can take up the relationship between the sonnet or poem’s form, and its argument (and wherein you will probably have to refer back to its conceit).
6. a) Note the sonnet or poem’s use of enjambment, or absence of the same (that is, if there is no use of enjambment in the poem, you should notice this).
b) What significance does the sonnet’s use of enjambments have? Or: what significance does the poem’s absence of enjambments have?
7. a) Are there any caesuras in the sonnet or poem? b) What significance might these have?
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8. a) Indicate the sonnet or poem’s sonic features – it’s use of alliteration, consonance, assonance, and internal rhyme.
b) What significance do these sonic features have?
9. a) Note any uses of figurative language (apart from its conceit, if there is one) metaphor, simile, personification, etc. You should make a list of as many of these as you can find in the poem.
b) What is the relationship between these uses of these figurative language and the poem’s general meaning?
10. a) Are there any allusions in the sonnet or poem?
b) If there are, what is their significance? If there are none, why might that be significant?
11. Are there any other formal features of the sonnet which you think are important, but which are not covered by the above questions?
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