Dont Go Far Off
Dont Go Far Off - form Summary
A Pleading Sonnet Form
This sonnet is a direct, urgent plea against absence. The speaker begs a beloved not to leave even briefly, turning fear of abandonment into vivid images—an empty station, roaming smoke, a dissolving silhouette—and asking whether separation will be permanent. As a sonnet, its compressed form concentrates emotional escalation: brief pauses and repetitions heighten urgency, while the compact argument moves quickly from request to imagined desolation and desperate questioning.
Read Complete AnalysesDon't go far off, not even for a day, because -- because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep. Don't leave me, even for an hour, because then the little drops of anguish will all run together, the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift into me, choking my lost heart. Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach; may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance. Don't leave me for a second, my dearest, because in that moment you'll have gone so far I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking, Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?
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