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"Sonnet" Billy Collins (1999)
Ben Krahn

All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now, and after this one just a dozen to launch a little ship on love's storm-tossed seas, then only ten more left like rows of beans. How easily it goes unless you get Elizabethan and insist the iambic bongos must be played and rhymes positioned at the ends of lines, one for every station of the cross. But hang on here while we make the turn into the final six where all will be resolved, where longing and heartache will find an end, where Laura will tell Petrarch to put down his pen, take off those crazy medieval tights, blow out the lights, and come at last to bed.

**Way 1: First Impressions**
Billy Collins' "Sonnet" was an interesting and somewhat "cryptic" poem that could be interpreted many different ways. I was drawn to the idea that within the first few lines, the content was referring to the process of writing the poem. It also seemed to mock the usual concepts that poems take, by painting an almost "fake" picture of a surreal atmosphere or a "poetic" atmosphere. I think the first portion of the poem has to do with the idea of a certain format that poems should be in. How the poem couldn't really be considered a poem if it didn't fit certain criteria, rather than just letting everything "flow" out.

The last portion of the poem is quite interesting with (what it appears to be) conversation or dialogue within a relationship. Maybe one of the members of the relationship has dressed up in medieval time's apparel and the other partner is summoning them to "settle down" and stop doing what ever they are doing. The first and most prominent sense I have with this poem is that it is constructed to mock the cliche style or topics of the majority of poems in existence. I say this because of how the words actually refer to the poem itself, which I have a hard time remembering when I last noticed that in any poem or literature that I have read.

**Way 2: Engaging with the Text**
This poem does not offer many examples of alliteration of rhyme besides the ending words in line 11 and 12 with the words "end" and "pen" which is the closest rhyme scheme that can be found throughout the poem. The poem does not have a typical or a certain rhythm to it either, it reads almost as if some one is carrying on a conversation with another person. The structure is admirable because I believe it goes along with the context of the poem as well, either a person talking or writing to "them self" or talking to a person that they consider very close. The punctuation is spread out as well, if a person would notice the structure of the poem, they would find that the first period in the poem comes after the fourth line. This makes the poem flow easier (like a conversation) rather than a rehearsed feeling or a constructed statement that would be present if the periods were present as well.

The author or the speaker of the poem is talking directly to some one specific. It is not a message for a general audience, or a writing of a self reflective person, but it is specifically tailored for a single person that is close to that speaker. The unique direction that this poem takes makes it have the "feeling" that this shouldn't be considered a poem, either because of its content or structure, but a specialized dialogue with a literary "twist".

Way 3: A Point about Form and Its Relationship to Content
This poem does not offer any rhyme schemes to speak of. There are a few instances where we could consider, lines 3 and 4 or lines 11 and 12, could be considered rhyme schemes. The poem is not organized into stanzas; it is created to go from line to line. I believe this style was used to create fluidity within the poem to go along the lines of my first impression, that this poem is organized in a way to make it seem as if a person is talking to another person or just talking aloud to themself. This is a style that is widely used, though I have not found a poem with a "voice" quite like this one. This seems like it is a person writing their thoughts down or at least thinking about something in their mind before they go to rest. It does not appear to me that the speaker is talking to anyone else. The punctuation is very scarce in this poem. There are periods and commas, but not organized in a fashion that would be parallel to modern English practices. This was done basically, in my opinion, to go along with what I had said before, that this is a person speaking casually to someone else or to themself.




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Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
I think one of the images that plays an important role in this poem is the idea of "the little ship on love's storm tossed seas" (Line 3). I think that the reader can imagine images that of someone who is might feel vulnerable or unsure preparing themself to jump back into the "real world" where we all tend to look for some sort of love of some degree. From what we find throughout our experiences is that through good times and bad, we tend to learn where things went wrong and we experience the times when things are going quite good. But with this comparison to "love's storm tossed seas" we can think of "love" as being as unpredictable as anything we may be able to imagine. We may need to "prepare" for this moment, depending on where we are in our lives and this may come easily to some while others may find it quite difficult to operate with this idea. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
In line 6 it is mentioned that "insist the iambic bongos must be played" which I believe to represent the idea that some poetry is thought to have certain "ground rules" while writing and constructing poetry. I think this is a call for people who are beginning or continuing to write poetry to not think too hard on obeying these "rules" but instead do what they feel like benefits the poem. I think of poetry as being free spirited and a way to use specific language and specific words to convey a particular point. Poetry is not something that can fill the contents of a whole book; it must be relatively short and to the point. So I think the comment on the "iambic bongos" refers to how scholars and casual poetry readers and composers conform to these "laws" and don't use as much creativity or imagination as they could be using.

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The poem uses a simile to compare the amount and arrangement of lines in the poem with "rows of beans" (line 4). This also adds to the conventional "rules" of poetry that the composer chooses to address. This gives the reader a great image of how everything is supposed to be just perfect and organized so precise that it can be "cultivated" or read as easily as possible without any thought or effort needed to look deeper. Or if the person was playing on the lack of effort principle, it could just be added for the sake of somewhat rhyming without making much sense to the poem besides that fact.

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The later portion of the poem offers a unique perspective in stating that "longing and heartache will find an end" which almost makes this poem quite satirical (line 11). The reader may get that view from reading it the first time, but it doesn't really settle in until a few times through that this poem was designed and constructed to ridicule poetry. It comments how in almost every poem that deals with love or passion, every thing seems to get settled in the last few lines making everyone know that it really is "okay."

Way 5: Analyzing the Setting
The setting in "Sonnet" is a little bit unclear. By looking at the last lines, it could be assumed that this writing or thought process is taking place in a bedroom. It could maybe be a bedroom shared by a couple, mainly because of the mention of the names "Laura" and "Petrarch." If the setting does in fact play a role in the poem, it would be fair to gather that it brings a certain intimacy to the poem. The content is worded almost like a dream as it flows from line to line mentioning things that seem to be fantasized about. With that, we could attach the dream idea to the setting of it being in the bedroom, where we sleep and ultimatley dream while we are sleeping. The last line appears to sum up this idea by stating " blow out the lights, and come at last to bed."

Way 6: Analyzing the Point Of View
In the poem "Sonnet", the narrator uses the third person omniscient point of view. It is quite difficult to tell what point of view is being used in this poem, considering we are not "hearing" any thoughts from a certain character, but rather the thoughts of a "detached" narrator. This adds a more distant feeling to the poem along with the intimacy value I spoke of before. The tail end of the poem wraps up with two names, who, given the rest of the content of the poem could or could not be characters in the story. While reading through it, the reader could agree that the names mentioned at the end of the poem could be just simple names, or characters from other pieces that were used in this poem and not actual characters. With this stated, it makes it much more difficult to actually define what point of view is being used. I believe this approach to this poem was used to allow different layers of the poem to over lap. In line 3, it makes reference to "storm tossed seas" while describing a certain emotion. This emotion, attaches itself with an image that we could possibly connect to our everyday lives. Love is like a "storm tossed" sea at some point and when it mixed together with the intimacy brought to us towards the end of the poem, we start to see different layers and different perspectives that further "mask" the point of view.

Way 7: Analyzing Complexity, Ambiguity and Difficulty
In "Sonnet", the poem as a whole is not very difficult to read or comprehend. This poem takes a more straight forward approach than most poetry, in that it doesn't offer any "off beat" allusions or metaphors that readers wouldn't encounter in their every day lives. However, in line 12 it makes reference to Laura and Petrarch, which seemed to me for the majority of the time while analyzing this poem were just random names or characters that were in the poem. I later found out that Petrarch was a very influential Italian poet during the 14th century in Italy. If a person was not familiar with older literature or poetry (as was I) this would not have been noticed or served as anything significant. This, in my opinion, creates problems for the composer of "Sonnet." If it was a main point of theirs to create a poem to have a specific meaning, it runs a good chance of being "lost" upon people who are not familiar with significant composers of the world throughout any time period. Since I found that Petrarch really was a living person, it makes this poem take on a different spin than what it had done previously. This poem almost appears to me as being satirical in the sense that Petrarch writing style was almost "too cheap" in the way that the romantic elements of his poems were over done given more weight of importance than needed. With including a reference to an author/poet that lived quite a long time ago, this poem does have some ambigousness that comes along with it. Anytime when a person encounters something in a certain piece, have it be a novel or a poem, it could to an extent be considered ambigous. With Collins' mention of Petrarch, this is not only ambigous with the idea that people are not aware of who Petrarch is, they are not aware that Petrarch is even a person at all, which could cause them to "skip" over the whole concept entirely.

Way 8: Vertical Thinking
This poem, from my understanding, is basically about poetry in general. To some extent, I believe it takes a mocking stance when looking at poetry and brings out the humorous and over looked side of poetry. This point, would probably be the best case this poem has for making it or even being considered to be entered into the canon. I don't think that it provides the thought provoking or emotion provoking ideas that some popular and unpopular poems do so well. For my consideration, I would have to witness how much effort was put into this poem. For example, if we learned that "Hamlet" was poorly concieved and composed after a long night of binge drinking in a matter of an hour, than we may have some different thoughts about how "well" we look at that piece. This goes for all pieces of literature, if a certain work was constructed with minimal effort in a minimal amount of time, it may just happen that the public thinks it is a very good piece and scholars may be mislead to believe that this was a 5 year process of finely articulating thoughts and ideas when in fact it was just "scratched" onto paper. With this said, I have a difficult time even considering "Sonnet" to be a piece that should be widely panned by critics of a good piece of work. It is interesting and fun and very creative, but so are alot of things that don't get the appreciation, simply because none is due.

Way 9: Biographical Context
Initially, it was difficult to draw any parallels between ideas and themes in "Sonnet" to anything that had been brought up throughout Collins' personal life. It was concluded though that it is a widespread idea of Collins' work that he takes an analytical and critical view while writing his poems. This is interesting due to the lack of writers in the literary world that write poems using this stance and an even fewer amount of people who can do it successfully. I think to an extent, especially in Collins' circumstance, that writers are not easily influenced by "big" things that happen in their lives. They may write a piece about something they consider important or they may decide that the idea of writing about that circumstance is rude and too emotional. But how Collins' writes, in my opinion, is what he sees in the present. He appears to write his poems about things he sees or hears throughout his everyday life. The fact that something so simplistic, that we may just "look over" and forget, but Collins' is inspired by is very interesting.

Way 10: Historical Context
This way of analyzing deeper meanings within my piece has proven to be somewhat difficult. Collins' has come from a "normal" family that really hasn't offered anything so important that it would readily and conciously shape his way and style of writing. Since this poem was published in 1999, it is somewhat hard to distinguish what could have influenced him to write the poem in the style that he did. As I had stated before, I believe that the narrator's tone in "Sonnet" is somewhat sarcastic and satirical to some extent. One of the "historical" references that I thought could be applied here is that modern day literature, especially poetry is not making the impact it once did. In our English classes, we look back at past poets that have shaped and influenced how poetry has changed over the years. With such a recent entry into the vast collection of poetry, it is difficult to determine what really is "driving" this poem. But with going with what I had stated before, I think that the tone of this poem is reflecting modern day's society and how they look at poetry. Now, it seems like a person needs to make a concious effort to come across any kind of poetry and I know from discussing this with certain people that it always wasn't like this. Believe it or not, there was a time when people were surrounded by good poetry, poetry that "called" out to be recited in some way or form. Now, with the exception of reading past poetry, it almost has reached a point where people do not consider it important any more. They consider the era of "good" poetry to have passed, a point in time that has long been forgotten.

Way 11: Theoretical Approach
When considering an approach to interpreting "Sonnet", I think it would appropriate to look at the poem through the New Criticism approach. With it's imagery and ambigous statements, the "meaning" of the poem has been left up in the air to some extent. The first statement that should be pointed out is the imagery used while describing the idea of "love". According to the poem, love is a "storm tossed sea", but without reading into cultural contexts, I believe this is supposed to describe the idea of how love has always, always remained somewhat of a trivial topic for mankind. This statement refers to the idea that nothing is for certain, we must always be prepared for the unexpected to pop up. The poem goes on to describe "how" a poem should be formatted. Should the poem follow a rhythm? Or should follow the tracks of more popular poetry? The idea that poems have an unspoken rule about how they are constructed is a pretty interesting statement. The other statement that concludes this poem is described as how poems, especially ones refering to love, usually find a way to conclude itself. Collins' states that "where all will be resolved, where longing and heartache will find an end" which alludes to the fact that in these types of poems, it always appears to be resolved, one way or another.

Way 11: Another Theoretical Approach
Another approach that could potentially be useful is the psychoanalytic approach. The way that this could be used is to examine the way that this poem is written almost as a sarcastic jab towards the literary world or as a satirical example of how poetry is "supposed" to follow certain guidelines. I tend to agree with Collins' in that there should not be certain guidelines that are set forth to further characterize or even critique certain works. In "Sonnet", his approach is to allude to the past, covering a wide spectrum of examples, mostly stereotypes, that most people find when they are exposed to poetry. Nothing in Collins' past suggests a reason why his poems take on this style, but I think that maybe it was a subconcious way of learning that he had grown to admire as he got older. The ability to constantly question and also to have the ability to look at things below or above what mainstream society tends to look at things. People appear to contently accept the approach that past poets have taken, to construct a poem about love, either gained or lost love that seems to affect them to the point where they feel compelled to write something about it. But with this idea, not many have really looked at these cliche'd poems with the question "why"? Why are so many of these poems in exsistence? Why does someone appear to write about love more than anything else? Why couldn't these popular poets write about their own self? Or the pen or writing tool they are using? This is the style that Collins' tends to construct his poems around, playfully using the elements to make it seem that he is truly following the trent, when in fact he is sitting from afar watching it and wondering "why"?

Way 13: Unifying Interpretation
As I first approached this poem, I was personally having issues deciding what certain portions of the piece meant in the literary world. It may appear daunting and confusing at first I had noticed, but realized through the ways we have learned through the class, a person "trained" with the analytical eye can easily figure out the overall meanings throughout the poem and any underlying themes that may have been offered. The tone of the poem is something that not many people see in the poems we usually read in literature classes, which ultimatley lead to further confusion as well.

The structure of the poem is quite unique in it's own right. It doesn't offer the usual rhyming schemes that we usually find in poems and it is not very clear at first what the author or speaker is talking about. One of the instances where this comes into play is the reference to Petrarch towards the end of the poem. At first, I must admit, had conciously overlooked this item thinking that it was just refering to a person or something that the speaker knew and the reader really did not need to know. Through further research and questioning, I found out that in fact Petrarch is a past literary "icon." One criticism I could mention with this, is that the poem mentioned a name that the casual reader may not be familiar with. When this is the case, it can ruin or diminish the credibility of the message or theme that the speaker is attempting to convey.

The tone and word usage of this poem suggests that the speaker of the poem is talking about love or passion or another, which is a usual theme in poetry that we are exposed to. But when one indulges in the reading even further, they will notice that the tone of the poem is very sarcastic and worded very mockingly. This is what had engaged me even further in the poem, noticing that the tone was something that I was not really used to in reading poetry. The language used in the poem is language that is used in most "love" poems. I believe it is not used by the author to convey the message of passion and love, but it is used because the other poems use this type of language, which in turn allows him to increase the mocking tone of the poem.

In the end, this poem uses many different styles that are commonly studied while analyzing literature and poetry. But the "unique" styles that Collins' uses in poem that are not commonly studied is what makes this poem a very important contribution to the study of literature. It can teach the casual reader or the engaged reader, that poetry, no matter what style, can clue us in to many different ways of conveying our thoughts. It may be difficult at first or it may be fairly easy to comprehend, but the level of difficulty does not dictate the quality of a poem.