Mortal, yet Vital: a Sonnet
Marilyn Hacker is correct in her analysis of the typical American student’s exposure to sonnets, being limited and reduced one pretty well-known poet: Shakespeare. However, the sonnet is more than its European roots, and have been modernized and Americanized since its journey across the ocean in the late seventeen-hundreds. (Hacker 298). Sonnets are composed of fourteen lines with a proper rhyme scheme. Hacker describes sonnets, especially with American origins, as “emotionally charged” which is true in Gwendolyn Brooks’ The Rites for Cousin Vit. (Hacker 298).
The sonnet transitions from the scene of a friend’s funeral, to lively, vital memories of her presence. Her vitality and energy was ironic given her current state, being bolted into a casket. The line, “Too vital and too squeaking. Must emerge.” details her spirited personality, being too big for her own casket to bear. (Brooks 307).
The closure of the sonnet highlights the present tense of the language used to further establish the friend who had passed as being full of life. Specifically, the line, “In parks or alleys, comes haply on the verge Of happiness, haply hysterics. Is.” uses present tense to describe past events to show how her life and legacy will continue to prevail, even in death. (Brooks 307). The last word of the sonnet, being “Is” conveys the purposeful language of the present tense — she “is”, not “was”.
Hacker’s perception of American sonnets being “emotionally charged” shines through in Gwendolyn Brooks’ The Rites for Cousin Vit, as it was written in a period of civil unrest, and Brooks herself was African American.
Brooks, Gwendolyn. “The Rites for Cousin Vit.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Eds. Anne Finch and Katherine Varnes. Ann Arbor: U. of Michigan Press, 2002. pp. 307.
Hacker, Marilyn. “The Sonnet.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Eds. Anne Finch and Katherine Varnes. Ann Arbor: U. of Michigan Press, 2002. pp. 297–307.
