External Form, Continued: Sonnet 23 - Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?
And would the sun for thee more coldly shine
Because of grave-damps falling round my head?

I marvelled, my Beloved, when I read
Thy thought so in the letter. I am thine—
But . . . so much to thee? Can I pour thy wine
While my hands tremble ? Then my soul, instead

Of dreams of death, resumes life's lower range.
Then, love me, Love! look on me—breathe on me!
As brighter ladies do not count it strange,
For love, to give up acres and degree,

I yield the grave for thy sake, and exchange
My near sweet view of Heaven, for earth with thee!

Continuing on my death themed sonnets, Elizabeth B. B. reminds me of Shakespearean poetry, as she was one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era in the early 1800's. Her external structure in ryming is a little odd, as she uses an abba, abba, cdcd, cd pattern, which is less common with sonnets. Her stanzas are normal, with three four-lined stanzas, and a concluding couplet.

Elizabeth writes about how a woman dies for her husband, and wonders if she would appreciate her sacrafice. Once again, This poem has an illusion to dreams as Elizabeth writes of "dreams of death", which relates to Hamlets' sililoquy and-I'm inferring- an influence by Shakespeare. She begs her signifigant other to "love me, Love! look on me—breathe on me!" as she wants him to miss her/depend on her and need her. I get the impression that she wants to feel needed and is looking for companionship or her husband to depend upon her.

External Form: Oh! Death will find me, long before I tire by Rupert Brooke

Oh! Death will find me, long before I tire
Of watching you; and swing me suddenly
Into the shade and loneliness and mire
Of the last land! There, waiting patiently,

One day, I think, I'll feel a cool wind blowing,
See a slow light across the Stygian tide,
And hear the Dead about me stir, unknowing,
And tremble. And I shall know that you have died,

And watch you, a broad-browed and smiling dream,
Pass, light as ever, through the lightless host,
Quietly ponder, start, and sway, and gleam --
Most individual and bewildering ghost! --

And turn, and toss your brown delightful head
Amusedly, among the ancient Dead.

Form and Background:
I found this sonnet on the internet and it ammused me, so therefore I decided to write about it. The external form follows the sonnet ryme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Rupert Brooke has three stanzas, and a concluding couplet at the end of his sonnet as well. I never heard of Rupert before, so upon a little research i found out he is a Brittish poet known for his war poems about WWI, yet he never experienced combat first hand. He was also described as "the handsomest young man in England".

Analysis:
This poem struck me as interesting because of its capitalization of the word "Dead", he does not capitalize "died", yet one of his lines goes to say "hear the Dead about me stir", meanning Dead is a propper noun, much like people and their names. He notes that watching you smile is like a dream, which is interesting in the sense of how it reminds me of the dream-like state Hamlet belives is related to death. Hamlet also beleives he sees his fathers ghost, and Rupert references a gleaming and bewilderign ghost in which he believes to see, as his punctuation references exitement.

He also relates nature into his poem, as i was unsure of what "mire" was, and it is muddy gorund much like a bog or a swamp. He talks about "lost land", which might mean lost time. The "Stygian tide" is a glum reference, as it is defined as infernal and hellish.

His couplet "And turn, and toss your brown delightful head
Amusedly, among the ancient Dead " adds to my theory of how the subject is not accually dead, but death is a metaphor. As to state the obvious, dead people dont "turn and toss", unless the subject was a ghost as mentionined in the third stanza.

External Form: First Fight. Then Fiddle. By Gwendolyn Brooks

The title Gwendolyn chooses for her poem creates an interest for the reader in why she has put the order of events as so. Her poem flows, yet the ryme scheme is a little different then the typical sonnet. Brooks chooses the pattern of: a b b a, a b b a, c d d c, e e which is not common, but acceptable. Her sonnet has fourteen lines, and does conclude with the couplet which ends and defines her poem.

The title goes to summerize the plot of the poem in the very first line: "First Fight. Then Fiddle." which is pretty straightforeward, yet many rewordings occur during the poem to convey the message: "Carry hate/Infront of you and harmony behind". The tone changes around line eight, where "malice and murdering" is the first violent image the arises during the poem. The reader is left to question Brooks's motives, where in her couplet she says "For having first to civilize a space/ Wherein to play your violin with grace." She believes that music is not to be heard in a place of warcraft, and in celebration for a victory and peace music is to be played.