Sonnet of the Sweet Complaint
Sonnet of the Sweet Complaint - form Summary
Sonnet Shaping Yearning
This poem is written as a sonnet that frames a personal plea. The tight fourteen-line form concentrates the speaker's fear of loss and their dependence on a loved one, moving from images of decay and emptiness to a final urgent request to retain the beloved's presence. The sonnet’s compact shape intensifies contrasts between stillness and yearning, turning private despair into a concentrated emotional appeal.
Read Complete AnalysesNever let me lose the marvel of your statue-like eyes, or the accent the solitary rose of your breath places on my cheek at night. I am afraid of being, on this shore, a branchless trunk, and what I most regret is having no flower, pulp, or clay for the worm of my despair. If you are my hidden treasure, if you are my cross, my dampened pain, if I am a dog, and you alone my master, never let me lose what I have gained, and adorn the branches of your river with leaves of my estranged Autumn.
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