SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY
This is not difficult to understand. Read it over slowly, trying first to get the meaning of each sentence as if it were prose. You may have to read it several times before you see the exact meaning of each part. When you have mastered it, read it through consecutively, thinking of what it tells about Lincoln.
This poem is, as you may know, a sonnet. Notice the number of lines, the meter, and the rhyme-scheme, referring to page [139] for a review of the sonnet form. Notice how the thought changes at the ninth line. Find a sonnet in one of the good current magazines. How can you recognize it? Read it carefully. If it is appropriate, bring it to class, and read and explain it to your classmates. Why has the sonnet form been used so much by poets?
If you can find it, read the sonnet on The Sonnet, by Richard Watson Gilder.