Tarry Not Fair Sol Analysis

The sonnet is a poetic model which is deeply entrenched in English literary tradition; the sonnet, following its introduction to England during the Renaissance, the sonnet form enjoyed a vogue between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries which reached its apogee in 1609, following the publication of Shakespeare’s sonnets; the form then befell a period of momentous neglect wherein an ‘occasional’ sonnet vogue emerged, which worsened due to the cultural distance eighteenth century writers imposed between themselves and the Elizabethans. Though the form was regarded as antiquated by many, the literary works of John Milton, whose utilisation of the sonnet form subverted the Petrarchan conventions in order to create a meditative thematic procedure which represented the struggle of the individual, and the necessity of a cohesive comprehension of one’s own psyche and reality; this was profoundly influential to the sonneteers of the late …show more content…
Thus, by inditing my sonnet, entitled Tarry Not, Fair Sol, I am engaging with a form the forms’ momentous literary history. The sonnet form, despite being disparaged by many critics, is regarded as a form ideal for the encapsulation of a single poetic thought; however, I have utilised the form to encapsulate a singular moment of profound beauty, and made use of the traditional bipartite structure to encompass two poetic thoughts; Tarry Not, Fair Sol is a sonnet which pertains to the moment of crepusular light caused by the passing of the westering sun over the horizon; the first seven lines of the sonnet extoll the sun for its beauty, and depict the sky as a battleground for the sun and moon, from which the sun is retreating. The volta occurs midway through the eighth line of the poem, and thus the final six lines pertain to the culmination of a tryst between