I love so many aspects of this sonnet. Let me count the ways . . .
I love the way it begins in medias res, and how the themes of passing time and death are present throughout.
I love the haunting metaphor of the canary birds (we all know what they were used for!) and the simile of the old woman’s thoughts as “balloons with broken strings".
Most of all I love the way the poet has shown the various stages of the game of life up to and including the tender duplicity of the woman’s husband in lines 12 and 13.
A powerful, moving, expertly crafted sonnet.
|