Appendix C. Sonnet Exercise.
This is the last quatrain and ending couplet of Maggie Anderson's poem "Sonnet for Her Labor"1
One March evening, after cleaning,
she lay down to rest and died. I can see Uncle Ed,
his fingers twined at his plate for the blessing;
my Uncle Craig leaning back, silent in red
galluses. No one said a word to her. All that food
and cleanliness. No one ever told her it was good.
And the same place in Shakespeare's Sonnet 73:
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Now you try:
Remember to pick a subject, person, idea or process related to work.
Make the rhyming couplet at the end a final idea, a wrap-up, a summary, or a surprise.
Bring this exercise to the workshop.
- 1Anderson, M. (2000). "Sonnet for Her Labor" in Windfall: New and selected poems.
- University of Pittsburgh Press. Used by permission of the author.
Comments: