Language as Artifact: A Poetic Critique

 


Knowing about Sonnets
by U.A. Fanthorpe

Lesson 1: 'The Soldier' (Brooke)

"[The task of criticism] is not to redouble the text's self-understanding, to collude with its object in a conspiracy of silence.
The task is to show the text as it cannot know itself."

Terry Eagleton, Criticism and Ideology
Recognizing a sonnet is like attaching
A name to a face.  Mister Sonnet, I presume?
If I
And naming is power.  It can hardly
Deny its name.  You are well on the way
To mastery.  The next step is telling the sonnet
What it is trying to say.  This is called Interpretation.
If I should die
What you mustn't do is collude with it.  This
Is bad for the sonnet, and will only encourage it
To be eloquent.  You must question it closely:
What has it left out?  What made it decide
To be a sonnet?  The author's testimony
(If any) is not evidence.  He is the last person to know.
If I should die, think this
Stand no nonsense with imagery.  Remember, though shifty,
It is vulnerable to calculation.  Apply the right tests.
Now you are able to Evaluate the sonnet.
If I
That should do for today.
If I should die
And over and over
The new white paper track innocent unlined hands.
Think this.  Think this.  Think this.  Think only this.
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