The sonnet, literally meaning “little song,” has withstood the test of time, and it is easy to see why. In current day, the English sonnet contains four quatrains and a couplet written in iambic pentameter. Typically, the sonnet reflects upon one sentiment and concludes with a turn of thought (volta) on that unsettles the previous meaning (Hacker). In our brief introduction to class discussion on the sonnet, we can already see how the sonnet provides readers with a predictable, timeless beauty. Sonnets often use a predictable, melodic structure to explore the incredibly confusing and complicated experience that is human romantic love.
The form of the Sonnet, while predictable and straightforward, holds its own confusions and paradoxes that must be unpacked. “Sonnets From an Ungrafted Tree” by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a great example. Millay wrote a sequence of 17 poems about a woman whose husband is dying, the first of which is featured in our course textbook An Exaltation of Forms. The trajectory of the poem follows the husband who is taking his final breaths in the world, as the woman, who has previously moved on, returns to witness his passing. But the final line “who planted seeds, moving ahead to their far blossoming” implies some sort of question about the future (Millay 306). This poem supports the claim that sonnets, while explorative in their nature, can also be straightforward by offering closure. While the majority of the poem fixates on the woman’s sadness, it takes a turn of hope in the end. The last line of this sonnet series says “I don’t know exactly what you do when someone dies” illustrating the exact exploration and uncertainty we’ve discussed today. Somehow, Millay makes sense and nonsense of this experience through the predictable nature of the sonnet, just as many of us do with poetry in tough times.
Hacker, Marilyn. “The Sonnet.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Edited by Anne Finch and Katherine Varnes, U of Michigan P, 2002, pp. 297–307.
Millay, Edna. “Sonnets From an Ungrafted Tree.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Edited by Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes, U of Michigan P, 2002, p. 303.
