Sonnet Reversed, Rupert Brooke, 1914
The use of the sonnet, which has been a vessel for love poems since Petrarch, has been explored through many centuries of European poetry. Traditionally having love as a central theme, attitudes in the sonnet form have changed, representing shifts in belief and custom through time.
Brooke’s ‘Sonnet Reversed’ is, as suggested by its name, an entire inversion of the sonnet tradition and form. The rhyme has been reversed, reflecting a refusal of the traditional ideals of love. Brooke argues against the common and romanticised views of life, reducing it to mere satisfaction – nothing greater then a comfortable house in a suburb of the capital with ‘social pleasures’. Their lives seem unfulfilled, death is only another event in the mundane existence of this couple, yet their own view on their lives is in no way disharmonious.
The time at which Brooke was writing formed part of a cultural and social revolution, with many rising and original art forms contradicting past tradition and values. Looking outside of Euro-centric arts, Picasso began to explore other cultures, revealing faults in our views of art and its purpose. Most notably, Cubism and Surrealism undermined many accepted conventions, and, as part of the artistic revolution, Brooke’s mischievous sonnet was created. Art and society became more outspoken, and revealed many truths previously concealed under traditional and Classical art – a continuation of the Realist movement.
Falling quickly from their ‘supreme heights’, the lovers described in the poem descend into the mundane routine of city life. The entire poem in this way is anticlimactic. With ‘trembling’ in the first line suggesting an extreme emotion and a love too deep to be eloquently expressed, it appears as if nothing can disturb the union. The ‘delirious’ honeymoon indicates a short, feverish explosion of love, which, as soon as it begins, is over. This overexcitement is maddening, and, like a feverish dream, is an illusion. Soon, it has become ‘strange’: a foreign and distant memory of love, and the couple are ready to settle into their routine lifestyle.
A repetition of ‘still’ lulls the reader into the routine, and reflects upon the repetitive nature of the subject’s lives. The pair are ‘quite content’ – an extreme contrast with the ‘supreme heights’ reached earlier. The sonnet describes perfectly the stereotypical city life of a middle-class family – ironically a standard many wished to attain.
The sonnet is a sharply perceptive and witty reversal of tradition. It denies the existence of love as viewed by past poets, instead placing it as a passing and fleeting infatuation.
Author notes
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/49414-Rupert-Brooke-Sonnet-Reversed
A contest entry
- Write a column about an Old Poet, Win big points + be featured! by Old Poetry.
1800 points, ended December 16, 2007, 5 entries
Honorable winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 6 of 6
-
amazing
You did a good job with this, great work. I like it very much! -
-
Thank you for commenting. I might post some more of my essays after exams.
-
-
Very interesting-- reverse sonnet indeed!
You wrote: "The time at which Brooke was writing formed part of a cultural and social revolution, with many rising and original art forms contradicting past tradition and values."
So that would cover Dada, Modernism, Post-Modernism? etc.? And the Red Scare & Mexican Revolution in North America, WWI and the demise of the Ottoman Empire, Germany's holdings in Afrika, and so forth?
Thanks for sharing this poem and poet, and the context in which the writer comnposed the poem.
-
As I'm a huge fan of Brookes' WW1 poetry this was such a refreshing change to read of something other than war.
I do wish however, that he had a chosen another title for this work as it, to me, doesn't speak of the poem itself but the reversal of a usual sonnet.
I did enjoy your work though and I thank you for the time and effort you put into this essay.
Von - Oldpoetry -
Well written analysis of a modern sonnet, anti-sonnet or Sonnet reversed as Brooke said. I was a bit bothered through out because, although I assumed you were writing about Rupert Brooke's work, you never actually specified. I see you did at the end but perhaps you could have stuck in his first name somewhere in the body of the essay. Just a picky point.
-
Thanks for your entry into this competition. Your piece, short though it is, contains some good work and is worthy of closer reading.
You have taken what was intended to be something other than a straightforward poem and tried to explain the authors purposes and how he achieves it. Good effort.
Adding your comment:
1 - 6 of 6
