Charlotte Smith tells how she enjoys the calmness of her own thoughts and imagination ‘Alone and pensive, I delight to stray’. In the line ’And watch thy shadows trembling in the stream’, we have to decide whether she is actually describing the reflection of the moon in a stream or the fact that she enjoys reflecting in her own thoughts and the shadows of her mind. The whole poem has a very calm and pensive feeling. It offers hope to those who have troubled lives. She describes the miseries of life and the comfort of death ‘The sufferers of the earth perhaps may go, released by death-to thy benignant sphere’, but also says that the moon comforts her and lets her know that good things do exist ‘thy mild and placid light sheds a soft calm upon my troubled breast’.
I feel that the language is very appropriate to the feel and mood of the poem. If she had used similes, this would have taken away from the mystique of the atmosphere. The use of metaphors helps to give the unrealistic and vague mood to the sonnet and the poets fanciful ideas. The poet keeps to the sonnet form extremely well, i.e. stray and way, breast and rest. She uses metaphors throughout the sonnet, like ‘placid light’, ‘troubled breast’, ‘benignant sphere’, and ‘cup of sorrow’.
Another style of sonnet is the Petrarchan sonnet. This comprises an octave followed by a sestet. The octave rhymes ABBAABBA, whilst the sestet is usually either CDECDE, or CDCDCD. An example of the second sestet is a translation by Charlotte Nooth, her third SONNET From the Spanish of Quevedo, circa 1815.
This poem has a very different feel to the first. It gives the impression that, either a lover or suitor has given up hope that Anna will return his love, or, that Anna’s suitor has died. Either way, he can no longer be with Anna, ‘My suit I cease, my faith I disengage’.
The language is more direct and less fanciful than ‘To The Moon’. The poet has used a lot of shortened words, to help the rhythm and rhyme, for example ‘My sighs are hush’d and all my ‘plainings o’er’. If the shortened words had not been used, the line would have been too long to fit the rhythm of the poem. If o’er had been over, then the rhyming scheme would not have worked. It also helps the feeling that the whole poem is literal, as if it is being spoken as we read it, we can almost hear it! This literal feeling is helped by the fact that each line is directly aimed at Anna, who we are introduced to within the first two words, ‘Yes Anna, you’re obey’d, this voice no more’.
Like Charlotte Smith, Charlotte Nooth does not use similes, but relies on metaphors to give description, such as ‘heart’s cold rigour’ and ‘chill disdain’. Again, this may be due to the era in which the poem was written, as similes tend to be more modern.
The tone of the sonnet is a little aggressive and almost sarcastic, ‘Yes Anna, you’re obey’d, this voice no more shall tell my tale of sorrow to your ear’. You get the impression that Anna’s suitor is relieved that he will no longer have to endure her cold responses to his feelings and charms. This is very different to Smith’s poem, which is very calm and wistful. Nooth’s language is also appropriate to the tone that she is trying to achieve in her sonnet. It tells exactly how the suitor is feeling, in a very direct manner. I think that the Petrarchan style suits this very well, as it is less rambling, than the Shakespearean. The fact that it is split into two stanzas gives a more direct approach and is more appropriate to speech than thoughts or dreams. The change in rhyming scheme emphasises the change in his speech. In the first stanza the suitor tells Anna that she will not hear or see him anymore, ‘From me, of sleepless nights no more you’ll hear’. In the second stanza the mood swings a little, where he tells us that he had hoped things would be different and explains why ‘My suit I cease, my faith I disengage’.
Pre-twentieth century Sonnets
To the moon
Queen of the silver bow! –by thy pale beam,
Alone and pensive, I delight to stray,
And watch thy shadows trembling in the stream,
Or mark the floating clouds that cross thy way.
And while I gaze, thy mild and placid light
Sheds a soft calm upon my troubled breast;
And oft I think-fair planets of the night,
That in thy orb, the wretched may have rest:
The sufferers of the earth perhaps may go,
Released by death-to thy benignant sphere;
And the sad children of Despair and Woe
Forget, in thee, their cup of sorrow here.
Oh! That I soon may reach thy world serene,
Poor wearied pilgrim-in this toiling scene!
Charlotte Smith, circa 1784
SONNET from the Spanish of Quevado
Yes Anna, you’re obey’d, this voice no more
Shall tell my tale of sorrow to your ear,
From me, of sleepless nights no more you’ll hear;
My sighs are hush’d, and all my ‘plainings o’er,
Not now for works of pity shall implore;
The timid glance that spoke my bosom’s fear,
My altered from, wan face, and starting tear
No more your heart’s cold rigour shall deplore.
Long time I hop’d that heart which feels for none
Would feel for me, a weary pilgrimage
I long endur’d, ‘ere this repose was won.
What time, what absence, loss of charms, what age
Could not effect, your chill disdain has done;
Charlotte Nooth, circa 1815
