Saturday, November 16, 2013

Review of "A Violin at Dusk" by Lizette Woodworth Reese

"A Violin at Dusk" by Lizette Woodworth Reese (d. 1935) was offered by Poets.org's Poem-A-Day on November 16, 2013.  A link to the poem may be found here:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23756?utm_source=PAD%3A+A+Violin+at+Dusk+by+Lizette+Woodworth+Reese+&utm_campaign=poemaday_111613&utm_medium=email

The poem is in the form of a rhyming Italian sonnet with a mainly dactylic tetrameter rhythm.  There are puns on the words "fret" (meaning to worry but also part of a violin), and "springs" (meaning the season but also part of the tuning mechanism of a violin), and "hand's width" (the distance lit by the candle in the poem but also referential to the hand's reach across a violin).  The somber music of the violin causes the speaker, presumably the poet, to "think of young, lost things."

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