Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Sonnet- Skylar Mays

Strange! by John Fredrick Nims


http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177381


This poem most closely resembles the English Shakespearian sonnet. It follows the rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg, however it modifies from the regular three quatrains. It is instead broken up into an octave, quintain, and a single line. I think it does this to emphasis it's difference from other sonnets about love. Instead of the common "I love her, and wish she would love me back," it's more of an "I love her and think she is so incredible, that I want everyone to appreciate and admire her as much as I do;" which is also why I choose this poem. An important characteristic of Shakespearian poems is the turning point. This usually occurs on line 9, and this poem does the same. The first stanza relates to how the speaker doesn't hear anyone talking about his assumed "love." Then the second stanza, starting with line 9, is how he believes their name should be spoken of and written about. It's a shift from observation to his thoughts, thus making the turning point more emphasized. He believes it to be strange that someone he finds so incredibly beautiful and amazing isn't on everyone's minds like it is his. This even continues into the last line where he says her name should be written in the stars, making it out of the hands of those gossiping in the banks and into the hands of the universe.

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