PREFACE:
My name is Nicholas Bisignani, in British Literature at the University of Delaware.
I'm using the avatar of a pug, the small dog.
I am a silly man.
Do not ask why.
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Upon first glancing upon just the title "Delia", a sonnet by Samuel Daniel, I can already assume that this is a poem about love, or about a lover that has passed or left Samuel for another. My initial assumptions were indeed correct; this poem revolves around a woman, Delia. My initial assumption was that this would be like many other sonnets, a sappy, heavy-hearted and contain much pining for the opposite sex.
I was quite wrong, and yet quite right at the same time. However, just by glancing at the numbers of the sonnets, I discovered a disturbing correlation, that of which will be explained later.
Within the first few lines of 33, which is assumed to not be the first of the sonnets as shown by the number, Samuel mentions how Delia has rejected him, evidenced by "Fresh shalt thou see in me thou madest"(5) and "thou hast scorned my tears" (14). It is not shown or mentioned exactly what he has done to garner such a rebuff.
However within the next sonnet, 45 he mentions his "shipwreck of my ill-adventured youth"(6), possibly pertaining to how he himself was the cause of the mess he is in. The aforementioned line also shows another interesting aspect, that time has passed between 33 and 45. It is safe to say that a substantial amount of time has passed since his rejection, and he still feels remorse for it. What I found a bit striking was his resolve. Throughout the ages (supposing that a long time has occurred) he still yearns for and holds remorse for something so far past. He begs the night to "relieve my languish and restore the light" (3) so that he may eventually forget about this person. Eventually, I say. I doubt that eventually will never come.
So strong was his love for Delia that he created over 630 (estimated) lines of prose for her.
Yet through the end, even without her consent, he creates these poems for her (evidenced in lines 1-4 of 46), to show the world what an amazing person she is.
Or was. Even if she is dead.
It took me a couple of reads to see that she has seemingly passed away since 33.
"Thy glory pass" (33, line 1) refers to flowers, the morning glory. In the language of flowers, the morning glory stands for "love in vain" and are used to adorn gravestones.
"Though spent thy flame, in me the heat remaining/ I that have loved thee thus before thou fadest" (33, line 6-7) regards her life being gone, yet his love for her still strong.
"And these thy sacred virtues must protect/Against the dark and time's consuming rage" (46, lines 11-12) regards her being devoured by time, buried where nobody would be able to see her, in the dark.
And he still loves her, even though she has passed, "I lived and was thy lover" (46, line 14), the was not pertaining to his lack of love, but the lack of her being alive.
I think you raise some very interesting points. I was really interested in the way that the author utilized metaphors and images to convey the feelings that you discussed in your rumination instead of explicitly explaining what happened to him. One of the lines you used, his "shipwreck of my ill-adventured youth" is an awesome example of this because it conveys chaos, immaturity, recklessness, naivety, and other assumptions about youth through the use of shortly worded metaphor.
ReplyDeleteLater, when he begs the night to "relieve my languish and restore the light" (3) he may, as you say, speak of forgetting the person and getting over the situation. However, tied in with the idea of youth vs. old age, we can also view the "light" as a spiritual and emotional enlightenment about women and relationships that comes only with age (and heartbreak).
Overall, nice rumination!
It is amazing to me that any human being is capable of writing so eloquently--and so passionately--about another human being, and I think you get at that pretty nicely here. I can easily see the line "shipwreck of my ill-adventured youth"--which, thank you for bringing that to my attention, because I didn't really "appreciate it" my first (or, rather, second--two pass reading for life!) time around--er...I can easily see that line popping up on Tumblrs and Facebook status updates across the globe, if the world re-gets its hands on it.
ReplyDeleteI also was wondering whom Daniel's might be writing about. I saw that Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke was mentioned as being a part of his life as Daniel was positioned to tutor her sons. Since this was the woman mentioned in the introduction I wanted to look up more about her. I came across this quote, "The respectful dignity of Daniel's prose dedication of Delia to Mary Sidney cannot be surpassed... (11)" along with other insightful quotes and information on google books. Delia (Google eBook)3-79. It was interesting reading about what type of influences and experiences Daniel had surrounding his writing. If you guys want to take a look/read here's the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=8oVaAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false