From The Dark Tower

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1922

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

A sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines. This sonnet follows the Petrarchan sonnet form, named after the 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch. The Petrarchan sonnet begins with an octave (eight lines) in which a situation, problem, or burden is presented. This is followed by a sestet (six lines) that resolves, or alleviates, the problem and restores a hope or a vision. Cullen follows this format, since the negations and privations that make up the octave give way to positive affirmations in the sestet.

The meter of the sonnet is iambic pentameter. An iamb is a poetic foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. It is the most common meter in English poetry. This sonnet has only a few variations on the iambic rhythm. Thus, the first two lines are regular iambic pentameter: “We shall not always plant while others reap / the golden increment of bursting fruit.” Only once does Cullen vary this rhythm, and that is in the first foot of Line 10: “White stars.” This is a spondee, that is, a foot in which both syllables are stressed.

In the octave, the rhyme scheme follows the pattern of the Petrarchan sonnet. Line 1 rhymes with Line 4, and Line 2 rhymes with Line 3. This is repeated in the second quatrain of the octave. The sestet differs, however, from the usual Petrarchan rhyme scheme, which is CDECDE or CDCCDC. Line 9 rhymes with Line 10, Line 11 with Line 12, and Line 13 with Line 14, forming a CCDDEE pattern. Thus, the rhyme scheme for the entire sonnet can be presented as ABBAABBA CCDDEE.

Anaphora

Anaphora is a literary device comprising repetition: The same words or expressions are repeated at the beginning of two or more lines or sentences. The first octave of this sonnet is marked by four repetitions of either the same or similar expressions. Line 1 states, “We shall not always,” and this is repeated in a shorter form in Line 3: “Not always countenance.” Line 5 contains another repetition, although worded a little differently: “Not everlastingly.” Line 7 repeats the expression and construction of Line 3: “Not always bend.”

For the reader, these repetitions build up a kind of rising tension or expectation regarding what is to come: How will this temporary condition that is repeatedly being described be resolved? The answer comes in part in the sestet, which contains a variety of positive images and thoughts.

Enjambment

Enjambment, also called a run-on line, is a poetic device in which the sense and grammatical construction of a phrase is not complete at the end of a line but continues into the next one. The reader must go to the next line to grasp the meaning. Enjambment occurs, for example, at the end of Line 1, “We shall not always plant while others reap”; the thought continues into the next line: “The golden increment of bursting fruit.” Lines 5 and 6 offer another example: “Not everlastingly while others sleep / Shall we beguile their limbs with mellow flute.”

Alliteration

Alliteration is a device consisting of the repetition of initial consonants, as in “Less lovely” (Line 10) and “hide the heart” (Line 13). Cullen also uses a particular type of alliteration, the repetition of the “s” sound. This is known as sibilance, and it creates a kind of hissing sound. Cullen employs the device first in Line 7: “some more subtle brute.” The hiss of the sibilants and the use of the word “subtle” hints at the hissing of a snake or serpent, since the serpent in the Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis is described as “subtle,” meaning crafty or deceitful. It is the serpent, of course, who tempts and deceives Adam and Eve. The sibilance becomes more pronounced in Lines 9 and 10 in the sestet: “The night whose sable breast relieves the stark, / White stars is no less lovely being dark.”