Fourteen Lines of Chaotic Choice

In forests deep, where chaos reigns unchecked,

A realm where solitude boldly takes its stand,

Amidst the trees, where wild spirits intersect,

A refuge found from the grasp of man’s command.

For here in the woods, with bears, a safer lair,

Than bound by chains of patriarchal might,

While women’s voices struggle in the darkness of the night.

Their strength subdued, their spirits autonomy stripped bare.

Preferring the bear’s ferocity of primal flaws

To man’s constraints, encased in false civility. 

Yet bearing this suffocating despair, a tolerance worthy of applause,

Wanting release of this struggle, to find tranquility

To say, So let chaos be throughout these fourteen lines,

For my choice said in a sonnet’s rebellion in our troubled times.

Within my sonnet I pay homage to Millay’s “I will put Chaos into fourteen lines” by echoing its theme of rebellion against constraints within the structure of a sonnet. Just as Millay challenges the traditional rules of poetry by declaring her intention to “put chaos” into the form of a sonnet, I create my own version of her poem through this rough imitation within the confines of the sonnet form. 

Both poems share a spirit of defiance and resistance expressing a sense of rebellion against constraints, whether they be poetic conventions or societal norms. Albeit my poem explores more of the tension between seeking refuge in nature and longing for societal change, expanding upon the themes of rebellion and freedom found in Millay’s work while also adding my own unique perspective and voice to the conversation. All the while still trying to pay homage to Millay’s pioneering spirit and poetic legacy.

Personally, I believe Millay’s poem doesn’t explicitly address patriarchy; instead, it focuses on the poet’s defiance against traditional poetic conventions. But, the change of gender Millay does when personifying/ symbolizing in literature, creates a role reversal that while it may not be a big deal to most, to me it is refreshing to see how she conveys the artistic freedom of the poem as to gendering it male rather than, as seen many times before, to be gendered within the female embodiment. 

 In contrast, my poem directly confronts the issue of patriarchy and its oppressive effects on women. I speak of seeking refuge in nature from the pain inflicted by men and expressing a longing for autonomy and freedom within a patriarchal society. My poem explicitly calls out the struggles faced by women and highlights the injustice of patriarchal power structures, with some levels of echoing Millay’s exploration of freedom and self- expression. 

I found inspiration for this through an ongoing trend on TikTok where women answer the question on whether being left alone in the woods with a man or bear and all, without hesitation, choose the bear, for the bear the worst thing it can do is kill her while a man may see this situation as an opportunity. As seen through the varying videos of the trend I found it fit to incorporate within this project as a means of tying it to the modern world and relevance to modern times. 

Although I believe I did well to imitate and pay homage to Millay’s poem, I still used my own inclination of aesthetics and in “pleasing” and “good” rather than in making it “poetry”. 

My Mistress’ beauty is nothing like her recent IG post

1. My Mistress’ beauty is nothing like her recent IG post
2. Filter is far more smooth than her skin’s texture
3. If angles on instagram make her beauty engrossed
4. Why does the reality of her body lose its structure 
5. Through a screen her posts upholds a perfect disguise 
6. In a pixelated world her gleaming eyes are the prize
7. No airbrush editing can improvise 
8. The authenticity where her candid self hides
9. She sees my love in the number of her likes
10. But her laughter is where I find happiness behold
11. When her legitimate smile strikes
12. It’s worth more than a social media facade can uphold 
13. Beyond the social screen her true beauty lies within
14. Her genuine splendor makes my heart spin 

For my piece, “My mistress’ beauty is nothing like her recent IG post,” I was inspired to imitate Shakespeare’s sonnet, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” So, when thinking of how to make Shakespeare’s sonnet fit our modern age, I immediately thought of social media and different ways to integrate the topic into a sonnet form.  The speaker in Shakespeare’s piece compares his mistress to different world beauties, like the sun. However, the speaker also compares different body parts of his mistress, like her hair and lips. The speaker’s comparison made me think of how frequently people are critical of how they present themselves on social media and even go as far as to compare themselves to different people on multiple platforms. 

So, for my piece, I wanted to have the same aspects of the speaker in Shakespeare’s sonnet, where he compares his lover to different things. Still, for my piece, I wanted my speaker to compare their lover to their Instagram posts and how the speaker doesn’t believe his lover looks like that in person. So I began with a similar opening to Shakespeare, saying, “My Mistress’s beauty is nothing like her recent IG post.”  Yet, I had to keep in mind that the rhyming scheme is every other line, so finding words that rhyme but also flow was a little tricky. I included different aspects people think of when they think of social media. For instance, I continued by saying, “Filter is far smoother than her skin’s texture; if angles on Instagram make her beauty engrossed, Why does the reality of her body lose its structure.” In this, I’m comparing the lover’s skin to the filter she uses, which blurs out her textured skin. People can use angles to get a desired look, but the speaker realizes that their lover’s body does not look like that in real life. 

I tried to include the lover’s body because the Shakespearean sonnet is a lot about physical love, a somewhat sensual love. There is also a slant rhyme within lines two and four. My volta appears in line nine, where the speaker shifts from talking about the facade their lover keeps up on social screens to how the speaker finds happiness with his lover in simple moments, like where the lover portrays pure happiness. My couplet, “Beyond the social screen her true beauty lies within; Her genuine splendor makes my heart spin,” is meant to answer why the speaker’s lover’s beauty on Instagram doesn’t grasp their attention. The answer is that the lover does not present their genuine self on social media, and the speaker is in love with their lover’s genuine self rather than a facade they hold on social media.

Janayah Applon

Enhanced and Altered

“Sometimes the Words Are So Close” by Julia Alvarez improved really well from her drafts. Alvarez was inspired to write this sonnet because of the “33” Sonnet Sequence. The “33” Sonnet Sequence focused on a man and his love towards another man, while Alvarez used this to focus her sonnet on a woman’s love towards reading. In her interview, she mentioned how she felt connected to one of Whitman’s line in his book and she borrowed then altered it to her own to conclude her sonnet. She did mention how she wants the speaker to be a women which means that this poem is representing a woman. So when you are reading the poem, you are basically connecting to a woman’s perspective.

I’m going to be honest, I couldn’t really understand what she was writing in cursive, but from what I can see, she did revise and alter it a lot on certain parts, taking out chunks and lines then adding more lines. We can see that she went from “words” to “poem” then back to “words” in the first line. I would say she did this because she wants to focus in depth and not the whole situation. Not every poem can relate to someone, but we can relate to words. In her draft, we can see there are many places where Alvarez made it seem that the speaker was directing it to herself (“I”, “my”, “me”). There were a lot of parts directed to the speaker herself, but Alvarez changed it and focused more on the context. There are a lot of “you” in the poem. Alvarez wrote her final draft with the speaker talking directly to the reader, then ending it with saying to the reader that when you read and analyze this poem, you the reader are connecting to a woman. Julia Alvarez altered and enhanced her poem based off her drafts. She focused more on connecting the speaker herself to the reader giving more meaning to the context of her poem.

Gurranvir Kaur

Insight within the foundation

Julia Alvarez’s poem “Sometimes the words are so close”, tells us of a speaker who finds it easier to communicate through stanzas than through spoken words. Depicting that life is ultimately just a necessary step before being able to write down poetry. Alvarez writes that true freedom is achievable and that one can find it even if it is for a mere moment, once one’s pen touches paper. Allowing for one to fully present themselves as one “Who touches this poem touches a woman.” (14). This idea of showcasing yourself fully through poetry is extended by looking through Alvarez’s earlier drafts of the poem. Looking at the drafts one recognizes the humanity within the writing process, seeing lines that were changed or completely removed. As the poem goes through further revision it feels almost like seeing human growth, as the foundation of the first drafts is expanded upon and becomes more detailed, more intricate. Ironically however one can also argue that looking at the drafting process takes away from Alvarez’s intention, when a poem dedicates itself to showing itself through stanzas looking at edits almost makes the final work feel dishonest. As if one created a carefully constructed persona to showcase to the world, rather than their true self. Finally looking at Alvarez’s 2006 reflection and explanation of her work gives us insight on those changes and drafts. Looking at the inspiration found within other poets and literary works we see the foundation and reasoning for the poem’s existence, and the drafts and revisions become the blueprint that allowed her to deliver such an intricate and caring message within 14 stanzas. The idea of a speaker presenting themselves through poetry is enhanced, into the belief that true and intimate connections can and are made with poetry, and naturally, this connection is destined to make us respond through poetry of our own. 

– Eduardo Ojeda Jr

The Sensual Form

The meaning of Julia Alvarez’s “Sometimes the Words Are So Close” is enhanced from the drafts by showing the “many drafts” to reflect the speaker finding themselves through many trial-and-errors. This is a petrarchan sonnet, because the rhyming scheme follows that of the petrarchan rules but also the volta that occurs on line 9, “Why do I get confused living it through?” (Alvarez 9). The audience partakes in this confusion as they read through the enjambment from lines 1-8 because of its lack of punctuations, in which shifts with the rhetorical question. The speaker also mentions they are more who they are when “down on paper” (2). The drafts Alvarez made become an artform reflecting the creation of the poem, the audience can see the authentic struggle of an individual trying to seek the right words that reflects their emotions. Alvarez writes many scribbles, crosses, and self-critical comments like “pretentious” that echoes the running sentence – a running thought of a speaker whose anxieties find relief in writing.

The speaker also speaks to the audience, “I once was in many drafts as you” (12). The audience is referred to as a rough sketch of a poem where each individual is refining and editing what gives them meaning, what they want, and who they are. The speaker acknowledges this too, but the sonnet takes a form of its own by the speaker by giving it a gender; “who touches this poem touches a woman” (14). And that is seen through the edits made in the drafts, a sensual experience of a female speaker who defines themselves through the poem’s form. The edits as well enhance that meaning as she tries to find the right words that reflect the meaning of her poem. It is with certainty, especially throughout the rough drafts, that the poem’s form is a woman’s as Alveraz ensured the poem ends in this manner. Her utilization of the sonnet form could be to reflect the female speaker defining herself against the patriarchal control of the sonnet, in which she encourages her audience whose words are “close” to the audience to define themselves as well. Nonetheless, it is through the drafts that reflects a human process of understanding one’s identity and establishing it despite the odds.

Phillip Gallo

“On Broadway” vs “The Barrier”

Two sonnets that I’ve chosen by Claude McKay are “On Broadway” and “The Barrier.” The first sonnet situates on the broadway and the speaker is stating how lonely it is to be around a “merry crowd.” Each of the stanzas start with positive tones then ends with a sad tone: “my heart, my heart is lonely” (On Broadway, line 8). The speaker is saying even though they are around a happy and positive environment, their own heart is lonely. The second sonnet (“The Barrier”) situates on the barrier between love and race. During this time, African Americans were never allowed to marry or be in love with white Americans. The speaker being an African American, is falling in love with a white person. He compliments how the person is illuminated like the sun and their voice flows like a “river reed.” He is slowly falling in love with the person even though their there is a “barrier of race,” since the person they love is fair and the speaker is dark.

These two sonnets relate in tone. They both have a positive yet sad tone when explaining their situations. The speakers in both sonnets are lonely cause they can’t find their happiness because of the barriers within. These two sonnets aline as in telling a story. The speaker is lonely for not feeling happy in an environment where everyone is positive, then it goes on to telling how they can’t love the person they want because of their race, making them more lonely. The speaker finds happiness within the person they love but because of “the barrier of race,” they can’t be with them still making them more alone. Claude McKay was able to relate these two sonnets based on tone and situation. He was able to show how alone it felt when having these barriers and because of these barriers, he was not able to find his happiness.

Gurranvir Kaur

Memory of Her

Poems, La Paloma in London and A Memory of June by Claude McKay, both tell a story of a fleeting romance. La Paloma in London, is a typical Shakespearean sonnet. The first quatrain follows the abab rhyme scheme with the words, light, fun, night, and done. The remaining two quatrains also follow the Shakespearan sonnets, rhyme schemes. The final two lines are a perfect couplet. The last word in each line rhymes: Glory, and Diory. The volta occurs earlier than is expected of a Shakespearean sonnet. Rather than occurring right before the rhyming couplet, it occurs on line 9, with the word Harlem. Up until this point, the speaker is out with his friends in Soho, having a good time. But upon hearing La Paloma on a guitar, the speaker is transported to an encounter he had with a Cuban woman. He reminisces dancing with the woman and her “coffee colored eyes keen glancing aslant at [his]” (McKay 78). In the final line, he proclaims he loved her. One of the five dominant themes of Shakespearean sonnets is a man expressing his love for a woman. It makes sense then, why McKay chose a Shakespearean sonnet, to tell the story of a man who cannot help but be reminded of an encounter he had with a woman, long past. It reveals the depth of his feelings for her. A Memory of June tells a similar story. Like in the previous poem, the speaker is transported to an encounter he had with a woman every time it is June. Unlike the first poem, this speaker talks of passion and sensuality. Just from their arms locked, he could feel their “warm flesh pulsing with love’s pain” (McKay 79). This speaks to their desire to be together intimately. So much so, it is painful. When intimate, the speaker says the woman’s “brown burning body was a lute, whereon my passion played his fevered song” (McKay 79). Here, the speaker tells of the pleasure he gave her. But, like the previous poem, the speaker and the woman go their separate ways and he is left with only the memory of her. This poem does not have many components of a Shakespearean sonnet. It is not 14 lines, but 23. But the first quatrain follows the abab rhyming scheme. Every quatrain, apart from the second, follows the same rhyming scheme as the first. This draws attention to the second quatrain, which I believe to be where the volta is. It is the moment when the speaker is transported to his summer fling. The volta served the same purpose for the previous poem. While A Memory of June does not follow the Shakespearean sonnet to a T, I believe it was done to express the difference of his love affair from the man in La Paloma in London. They both loved the women, no doubt, but the man from A Memory of June, had a romance filled with extreme passion, and deep intimacy. The other man’s romance seemed simpler, hence the Shakespearean sonnet.

Bella Cortez

Of Urban Settings

In “The Tropics in New York,” McKay contrasts the vibrant memory of the tropical homeland with the stark reality of urban life in New York City. This sonnet explores themes of cultural displacement and the longing for a lost homeland.McKay juxtaposes the lush, exotic tropics with the harsh, industrial landscape of New York, highlighting the stark contrast between natural beauty and urban reality. Right in the beginning of the poem it starts with, “Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root, Cocoa in pods and alligator pears, And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit, Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,” (lns 1-4). These lines evoke the vivid imagery of tropical fruits, contrasting with the urban environment of New York City.

In “America” McKay critiques the racial inequality and hypocrisy prevalent in American society, highlighting the disparity between the country’s ideals and the reality faced by marginalized communities. “Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,” (lns 1-2) This line metaphorically captures the bitterness and violence experienced by African Americans despite the promises of equality and opportunity in America. The sonnet further expresses a profound sense of alienation and disillusionment with the American dream, portraying a longing for acceptance and equality.

Both “The Tropics in New York” and “America” explore themes of displacement, disillusionment, and yearning. While McKay’s tropical sonnet contrasts the natural abundance of the homeland with the urban struggles in New York, “America” delves into the social and racial tensions within the American society. By analyzing these sonnets side by side, students can deepen their understanding of McKay’s thematic concerns and poetic techniques. The juxtaposition of imagery and themes across these poems illuminates the interconnected struggles and aspirations within the African American community during a pivotal period in American history.

-Alondra Garcia

Love but Harsh

In Claude McKay’s sonnets, “Flower of Love” (75) and “Jasmines” (88) they both share a thematic approach towards a connection of a woman’s beauty by describing her sweet scent, and comparing her to a flower. I believe the poem “Flower of Love” was a continuation of the poem “Jasmines” but may also be vice versa depending on the poem wanting to be considered a happy or sad story, since “Flower of Love” is approached as a poem of love while “Jasmines” theme involves a deep sadness in leaving his lover. 

In the “Flower of Love ” poem, there are 16 lines and falls within a Shakespearean sonnet. In addition, on line 10 there begins the volta, however, doesn’t seem to have another line within the poem that would rhyme with line 10: “Here let us linger indivisible”. Although the volta didn’t have a pair, the rest of the poem did have about 3 quatrains, but on line 15-16 the poem doesn’t end with a rhyming couplet, rather it ends with what seems in another quatrain. In other words, the speaker is breaking the traditional form of what a Shakespearean sonnet is supposed to originally be. Therefore, enhancing this poem’s meaning by not being able to divide this specific line into any other rhyme scheme in this poem, it was meant for the speaker to approach it as an undivided affection toward his woman, nothing can separate one another, not even traditional values. Furthermore, this poem represents a strong love towards a woman in which line 4 mentions “I worship at your breast.” It may sound peculiar for the speaker who would want to worship his lover’s breast, it is a way for him to describe how her scent becomes so captivating that his feelings become overpowering. Not only does the scent describe the woman’s beauty but a flower is used as a metaphor towards the petal as temptation. Which leads me to my next point in the poem “Jasmines”. 

In this sonnet there are 15 lines and it was difficult to really tell what sonnet this poem was because on the first line it states, “Your scent is in the room” but there would be no rhyme scheme to go with this line so I thought it may be considered a volta but in the third line, it also takes a turn as it also doesn’t have a rhyme in the poem. I think an extra line was added to this sonnet to really give the idea of how chaotic a relationship can be as this poem showed how messy it can get. To add on, I thought this poem really brought out the “Flower or Love” as one story as they share the similarities of the struggles and beauties of love. In “Jasmines” the aroma is powerful or as mentioned by the speaker, “Swiftly it overwhelms and conquers me!” (2). In addition, I found it rather interesting that a jasmine is not only describing his lover’s scent but also describing her as the flower itself; a night jasmine. A “night jasmine cannot bloom in this cold place” (9) is meant to portray the sadness and loss of memory the speaker had with his woman. Not only that, but at night jasmine can’t bloom in a dark cold place otherwise the scent will be lost and its petals won’t blossom. It is as if his woman and the speaker are parting from one another as her scent is leaving, and the last couple of lines in the poem began to describe nature with harsh weather. This follows with “Flower or Love” as love at first can be really beautiful that it begins to grow onto you such as the scent, but it can also be really cruel.

Celeste Tejeda-Menera

Political Rebellion Dawns in the Working Class

In Claude McKay’s Harlem Shadows, “The Tired Worker” and “Dawn in New York” are pieces of a continuous story about an exhausted worker finding inspiration from his peers and starting a political rebellion in New York. 

In “The Tired Worker”, the speaker embraces the night because they are finally done with work, and they can “rest thy tired hands and aching feet” (line 8). In “Dawn in New York”, the day begins anew in the sleeping city with “No pushing crowd, no tramping, tramping feet” (line 6). The speaker longs for the peaceful night and claims it as their own then celebrates the quiet morning before urgent work begins. This worker does not miss bustling crowds of other underrecognized and overworked people.

Both sonnets contain an element of personification with a wine-red Dawn interrupting the clouds. At first, the speaker clings to sleep while “dreaded dawn” “steals out the gray clouds red like wine” (lines 11-12). Later, the Dawn, “crimson-tinted, comes / Out of the low still skies”, and the people’s eyes are “wine-weakened and their clothes awry” (lines 1-2 and 11). The speaker is surrounded by other workers who have spent the night indulging in vices to escape the burdens of the day. Upon seeing fellow workers, this person comes to the conclusion that they must fight back against the oppressors who have a claim on “the wretched day” (line 9). The wine-weak people are a reminder of hidden suffering within the city. The oppressive Dawn is stealing time from the oppressed, cloudy-sky workers. This realization leads to the speaker seizing the opportunity to rebel in the Dawn. 

Two lines perfectly encapsulate the speaker’s growth between the sonnets: “Once again the harsh, the ugly city” (line 14) and “Almost the mighty city is asleep” (line 5). The worker resents New York in the first sonnet because the city lets suffering go on without interruption. New York is unaware (or uncaring) of its inhabitants living within the shadows. Under the dark of night, workers can be free, but “strong electric lights” reveal their grotesque nature in the morning (line 12). Although the people seem hidden at night, their transgressions are revealed to the speaker, and when Dawn returns, workers are forced to resume their exhausting routines. 

Although both sonnets are Shakespearean in nature, “Dawn in New York” ends in a slant rhyme instead of a perfect couplet. This oddity hints at conflict within the story. The speaker breaks the cycle to “darkly-rebel to [their] work” (line 14). This work is not part of the worker’s mundane, ordinary schedule (which is emphasized by the slanted rhyme rebelling against the typical sonnet form). Here, the speaker is leaving the shadows to reclaim power and defy societal norms. Like McKay, this speaker is going to fight the segregation and oppression that plagues New York.

~Miki Chroust