Sonnet

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1893

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

As the title implies, Johnson’s “Sonnet” takes on the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. This particular sonnet form is among the most commonly used English sonnet variants. Named after William Shakespeare, who popularized the form, the Shakespearean sonnet consists of 14 lines of iambic pentameter arranged into three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet in an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme. The sonnet is usually structured around a single thought, subject, or conceit—traditionally concerning romantic love—with a volta, or turn in thought, near the end. In a typical Shakespearean sonnet, the volta occurs in the concluding rhyming couplet. In Johnson’s “Sonnet,” however, the volta occurs at Line 9, when the poet-speaker shifts into a directive tone of voice. This deviation in volta placement resembles a Petrarchan sonnet.

Very few poems that follow poetic forms do so exactly, and poets will often exploit these deviations to reinforce certain themes, ideas, or images—as Johnson does by placing the double stressed syllables at the end of the fifth line (“For certain as the raven-winged night” [Line 5]). There are a few places where Johnson breaks meter to create poetic effects, particularly in Lines 9, 11, and 12: Each line begins with a spondaic substitution wherein the line’s opening iamb (a foot of one unstressed and one stressed syllable) is replaced by a spondee (a foot of two stressed syllables). Because of their two stressed syllables, spondees tend to be powerful feet when used to open a line in iambic pentameter, and in this case, they lend strength and authority to the directives their lines contain.

Weather as Metaphor

Often, poets will use weather events as stand-ins for emotions. This is a common trope of lyric poetry, particularly that written by Romantic poets like William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Though Johnson’s poem does not show much Romantic influence, the sonnet uses weather-related events and qualities—such as “darkness” (Line 10), “clouds” (Line 9), “night” (Line 5), and “blushing morn” (Line 6)—to navigate the speaker’s complex emotions. Unlike with most uses of such metaphors, “Sonnet” makes rather explicit the connection between the heart’s emotional state and the scenery described.

This type of metaphor is related to (but distinct from) the “pathetic fallacy,” a kind of personification in which someone ascribes human experience to inanimate objects or events, such as the weather; for example, in Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1804), the speaker describes “dancing” daffodils as “jocund company.” Johnson’s poem only hints toward such personification with the phrase “blushing morn” (Line 6), depending on whether one interprets “blush” as indicating some kind of abashment.

Heightened Language

Johnson’s choice to use antiquated poetic language, such as the informal “thou,” could be an attempt to elevate the poem’s literary claims. By writing a poem with similar form and vocabulary as many of the most revered English poets, Johnson demonstrates that he is able to compete at the height of his craft. The same could be said of Johnson’s use of poetic contractions such as “hind’ring” (Line 11) that are not used in everyday English.

Words like “thou” were already falling out of use when Shakespeare wrote his works and were mostly reserved for literary compositions. One of the most salient contemporary uses of this heightened language is in religious texts, particularly the King James Bible. In the biblical tradition, the second-person singular informal pronoun is usually reserved for higher beings (God and angels) and is used in reference to humans as a diminutive term. There is likely an element of this relationship in Johnson’s poem as well: “[T]hou” is spoken to the heart by the rational brain that sees beyond the immediate emotional crisis, just as the divine beings, by their knowledge of God’s plan, are able to console humans.