"Two Sonnets" part I

Charles H. Sorley. 1895–1915

172. Two Sonnets I

SAINTS have adored the lofty soul of you.

Poets have whitened at your high renown.

We stand among the many millions who

Do hourly wait to pass your pathway down.

 

You, so familiar, once were strange: we tried

To live as of your presence unaware.

But now in every road on every side

We see your straight and steadfast signpost there.

 

I think it like that signpost in my land

Hoary and tall, which pointed me to go

Upward, into the hills, on the right hand,

Where the mists swim and the winds shriek and blow,

A homeless land and friendless, but a land

I did not know and that I wished to know.

Analysis:
Charles Sorley was a World War I poet and his poems reflect his time at War.  In this Poem he disscusses and personifies death and its role in life, especially as a soldier. Sorley says, "you, so familiar, were once strange." I believe that this line is a personification of death and its relationship with soldiers. 

Interesting Fact about Chaucer:

2) There’s a crater on the far side of the moon named for Chaucer.

Struggle For Female Equality in "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale"Paragraph 2:

" No attempt to change the minds of others with regard to social order could possibly be effective without a statement of the shortcomings of the current order.  This is where the Wife may often be written off as a shrew-like bombast simply spouting her dissatisfaction.  She does, however, state several clever examples of how her society currently treats women unfairly.  She states that double standards for women and men are too common and are deeply rooted in culture.  She says that the teachings of Christ tell her, "That by the same ensample taughte he me / That I ne sholde wedded be but ones" (p. 117,  ll. 12-13).  She knows though that many holy men have had more than one wife and states:

            I woot wel Abraham was an holy man,

            And Jacob eek, as fer as evere I can,

            And eech of hem hadde wives mo than two,

            And many another holy man also.  (p. 118,  ll. 61-64)"

Authors: Jonathan Blake

Eng 150, Survey of English Lit

Professor Suzanne Johnson Flynn

Gettysburg College

9/25/94

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