Sonnet 23
Louise-labe
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Sonnet 23 by Louise Labé (Ft. Willis Barnstone)
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Louise-labeAbout
The woman in this poem has lost her husband and feels lonely. This poem is a response to a previous one written before, a couple of years prior. She uses different figurative language to get her point across. She wants to know if her loves scarafice is as hard as her life without him.
Sonnet 23 Annotated
What good is it to me if long ago
you eloquently praised my golden hair,
compared my eyes and beauty to the flare
of two suns where, you say, love bent the bow,
sending the darts that needled you with grief?
Where are your tears that faded in the ground?
Your death? By which your constant love is bound
in oaths and honor now beyond belief?
Your brutal goal was to make me a slave
beneath the ruse of being served by you.
Pardon me, friend, and for once hear me through:
I am outraged with anger and rave.
Yet I am sure, wherever you have gone,
your martyrdom is hard as my black dawn.