"Sonnet" Billy Collins

I found that “Sonnet” is more of a free-verse, it’s very light-hearted. I thought this poem is an example of a more modern sonnet form. There is even a sort of a half rhyme with "beans" in line 4 and the last 2 syllables of "Elizabethan” in line 5. I noticed there is sort of an allusion in the line "launch a little ship on love's storm-tossed seas” (line 3). Also there is another slant rhyme of "end" and "pen” on lines 11 and 12. I also noticed that the author kind of mocks the form and content while pretty much staying true the entire time. However, I really found the last line of the poem the most interesting. "Blow out the lights, and at last come to bed" (line 14). Collins uses iambic pentameter (which is a rhythm that the words in that specific line have) after mocking it as "iambic bongos" earlier. I also really enjoyed the irony of the poem; Collins was really able to show the readers what a sonnet is supposed to be while being sarcastic about it the entire time. He is writing a poem about something related to English, but he is being ironic about it. English is also known as Shakespearean sonnet. English/ Shakespearean sonnet normally has rhyme scheme reflects and it reflects the structure of the poem. I think this style of writing draws readers to it. This "Sonnet" is not like most of the other sonnets because it doesn’t really have a big story behind it and normally it’s a love story which I really thought was neat. Most of the other sonnets in our reading homework had some type of love story behind it, but I thought that “Sonnet” was more about mocking what a sonnet is than really writing a sonnet.