Analysis Of If Its Square, It's A Sonnet 1

In Thomas C. Foster’s “If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet” chapter in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster explains how a sonnet’s structure relates directly to the meaning and the purpose of the sonnet itself. “Sonnet 2” can be analyzed in such a manner, and its meaning and structure are very closely intertwined. The sonnet itself is structured as an English sonnet in iambic pentameter and follows the rhyme scheme of ababcdcdefefgg. The sonnet is broken into three quatrains and a couplet. The meaning of English sonnets can often be interpreted based on dividing the quatrain. Each quatrain serves an individual part to the sonnet’s overarching purpose. The couplet at the end of the sonnet then will conclusively describe the purpose of the sonnet as a whole. The first quatrain of “Sonnet 2” describes the inherent sustainability and resistance to change when love is elevated beyond simply a physical bond. The author writes, “Love it not love which alters when …show more content…
In the second quatrain, the author draws the metaphorical representation between love and a lighthouse. The author states that, like a lighthouse, love prevails through the most daunting of storms and stands tall to guide all ships that pass by its way. The ships are a metaphor for those who people who are guided by the light of love. Additionally, the author employs imagery to demonstrate the idea of love’s non-ephemeral qualities. The author states, “though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.” The author explains that even the most physically beautiful qualities, such as rosy lips and cheeks, will fade and wither under the power of time, while love prevails and is elevated beyond simply a physical