Sonnet

Sonnet by Billy Collins

All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now,

and after this one just a dozen

to launch a little ship on love’s storm-tossed seas,

then only ten more left like rows of beans.

              ⁵How easily it goes unless you get Elizabethan

and insist the iambic bongos must be played

and rhymes positioned at the end of lines,

one for every station of the cross.

But hang on here while we make the turn

            ¹⁰into the final six where all will be resolved,

where longing and heartache will find an end,

where Laura will tell Petrarch to put down his pen,

take of those crazy medieval tights,

blow out the lights, and come at last to bed.

                                                                                                            1999

From: The Norton Anthology

After studying sonnets in previous English classes, I had the impression that Petrarchan sonnets and Shakespearean sonnets are both very prestigious and highly regarded in the literary world.  However, Billy Collins’ Sonnet defies such a notion and daringly mocks the upheld form and content of a sonnet.  While this poem interested me because it was educational in its clear outlining of the components of a sonnet, I chose to analyze it because of what it revealed about Billy Collins as a poet.  The other poems I selected from Collins are contemporary, lyric poems that illuminate common fears, thoughts, or phases of life.  Although Collins’ Sonnet does sound contemporary because of its use of language, its content provides insight into who he is as a person.  By defying the calculated and measured form of a sonnet, he portrays himself as a compassionate man who capitalizes on human feelings and emotions, and his witty tone establishes him as a poet who employs his own style and writes about his passions.

Literary devices:

1. Sonnet: Billy Collins’ poem follows some of the guidelines for the structure of a sonnet, but he intentionally chooses to disregard some of them.  For example, his use of lines follows what is expected of a sonnet.  He writes, “All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now” (1) and includes “the final six where all will be resolved” (10) to retain some elements of a traditional sonnet.  Yet he disregards the meter and rhyming of Elizabethan sonnets, which “insist the iambic bongos must be played / and rhymes positioned at the end of lines” (6-7).  By explicitly stating which elements of a traditional sonnet he has decided to either include or leave out, Collins is able to assume a mocking, witty tone.  Rather than craft a calculated and measured poem, he enjoys writing his own original poetry that reveals his own interests.

2. Parody: As explained above, Collins’ utilizes some elements of a sonnet while intentionally leaving out others.  It seems as if lines 1 and 2 serve to portray the reluctance and disinterest Collins has towards writing a sonnet.  He methodically goes through some of the steps of writing a sonnet to achieve mockery.  By writing in line 5 “How easily it goes unless you get Elizabethan”, he suggests that sonnets are dreadful to write.  Similarly, he generalizes all sonnets, asserting that the last 6 lines of a sonnet are “where longing and heartache will find an end” (11).  By imitating the style of a sonnet while taking on a mocking, witty tone, Collins expresses his dislike for such a strict and regulated form of poetry.

3. Allusion: Collins uses an allusion in line 10 to further exemplify his mocking tone.  As he writes that “Laura will tell Petrarch to put down his pen, / take of those crazy medieval tights” (12-13), he subtly makes fun of the creator of Petrarchan sonnets.  The style of poetry Petrarch founded was widely admired and imitated throughout Europe, and by imitating the style of Petrarch’s sonnets in a mocking way, he also subtly expresses his distaste towards the popularity of sonnets.