Analysis: Sonnet XLI

SONNET XLI

I, being bord a woman and distressed
By all the needs and notions of my kind
Am urged by your propinguity to fing
Your person fair, and feel a certain zest
To bear your body weight upon my breast
So subtly is the fume of life designed
To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind
And leave me once again undone, possessed
Think not for this, however, the poor treason
Of my stout blood against my staggering brain
I shall remember you with love, or season
My scorn with pity, - let me make it plain
I find this frenzy insuffient reason
For conversation when we meet again.

1. Analysis the elements of this sonnet to identify what kind of sonnet is this?
After reading and understanding this sonnet, I find some elements which so far that I have studied. They are:
• The figurative language in this sonnet is Hyperbola. We can see that this sonnet is written only to expose the feeling of a woman about her love, unsatisfied, and missing to her husband. From the words “ I shall remember you with love, or season”, she describe her missing like unlimited time, or during the season. Beside that, this sonnet uses Synecdoche. From the words “To bear your body weight upon my breast”. She uses the word breast to picturize her body. Then, this sonnet uses Personification. We can see from the words “Of my stout blood against my staggering brain.”. It means that her heart wants to defeat her mind or her rationality, and describe is as if her blood want to press her brain. But much of the words which used explore denotation and connotation.
• The imagery that I classified to Visual Imagery. As we know, from 14 lines of the sonnet, the first 8 lines tells about the situation, and the next 6 lines tells about commentary. So, those 8 lines of Sonnet XLI describe what has happened to the subject. We can see from a part of these lines:
...
To bear your body eright upon my breast
So subtly is the fume of life designed
To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind
And leave me once again undone, possessed
...
The sonnet much tells about her happiness when she had one special night with her husband but dissapointed because she had leaved the. Eventhough those words are not telling the specific stuff or everything around the object of the sonnet, but it makes the reader enought understand and also to limit the reader’s imagination.
• Base on the rule that rhyme considers the pronoun, not the spell. The first line ended with the word distressed , and the second and the third lines ended with the word kind and zest, and it also happened to the next lines till line 8. It is different with line 9 till line 14, such as line 9 and line 10 ended with the word treason and brain. As we know that Sonnet XLI an example of Sonnet Petrarcha, which consist of 14 lines and devide to one octaf and one sextet with rhyme of ABBAABBA and CDCDCD. From this sonnet I found the same type rhyme, where Sonnet XLI also has rhyme of ABBAABBACDCDCD.
So, based on the elements, this sonnet is kind of sonnet of love, missing, and unsatisfied. We can see every that the author made this sonnet to deliver her love and describe how she missed her husband, even her husband never made her satisfied and then leaved her. Beside that, the sonnet is supported of the visual imagery which tells what she memorize and needs from her husband.
2. How those elements work as a whole to make the poem beautiful and build its theme?
This sonnet is a short poem, but generally is arranged beautifully. It uses some figurative language, they are Hyperbola, Synecdoche and Personification. To deliver what the author meant to the reader about how she loves and misses her husband, she uses the words which describe the object or her idea with overstatement and make the inanimate object work like a normal human to get the intens meaning. Like the words “Of my stout blood against my starggering brain”, actually it means about her heart tries to defeat her mind or her logic, because she loves her husband very much, and also the words “A shall remember you with love, or season”, means that she will wait her husband untill for long time, like seasons that she will spend. Synecdoche as I explain above, is used to describe her needs from her husband. The poem also formed with connotation and denotation words, and also to get intens meaning. But it doesn’t make the poem looked usual or ordinary because the thing that the author wants to explain prefer to be honest and shares her feeling. We also can imagine from the description of the author. Eventhought it doesn’t really picturize the stuff around, but it makes the poem become beautiful with its honesty. In addiction, the poem is also builded beautifully with variet final pronoun, where the rhyme is ABBAABBACDCDCD. So it makes the poem syncron each other, has the similarities, and heard beautifully.