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Zach Finklestein

Professor Wilson

English 123

22 May 2018

Poetry in Motion

To most people, poetry is art. Poems can have so many meanings and compared to stories, can be

looked at and explored for hundreds of years trying to find different possible meanings between

the lines. Like stories, there are different types of poems. One specific one is sonnets. What

makes a sonnet unique, is the possible rhyme patterns, length and many possible meanings.

Sonnets are composed of 14 lines and 14 lines only, some of the most popular are by William

Shakespeare, have multiple possible meanings based on how the reader interprets it. The sonnet

“Nuns Fret Not” is a perfect example because it could easily have more than one meaning. The

speaker talks about different examples of types of people, including nuns, students hermits,

maids and even bee’s. It talks about that those different area of people and things normally do

with their lives and what the plan for them is. It also talked about how freedom can hurt us and

that we’re trapped in the “prison” of what we do with our lives but we enjoy it. Like any sonnet,

there’s a rhyme pattern to the poem.

The poem “Nuns Fret Not” by William Wordsworth uses the form,

ABBA,ABBA,CDDC,CD to express the connection between everyone mentioned ranging from

a student to a bee to show how anyone and anything can be the same or related in some way. The

poem talks about how people are trapped in a prison, but it isn’t bad. People stick to routines and
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the norms for them and are afraid to have too much freedom, even the the speaker of the poem,

the author, talks about the prison of sonnets, “In truth the prison, unto which we doom ourselves

, no prison is: and hence for me, in sundry moods, ‘twas pastime to be bound within the sonnet’s

scanty plot of ground;” (8-11). Even though sonnets follow a strict set of rules, rhythm, line

length and lacks the freedom of writing however he wants, it’s what he enjoys writing and doing

so he’s happy living in this prison. The second half changes from talking about different

examples to how people are okay with the prison and are afraid of freedom this is also where it

changes from ABBA to CDDC, “Pleased if some souls (for such there needs to be) who have felt

the weight of too much liberty, should find brief solace there, as I have found.” (12-14). The

difference is the examples of students, nuns and himself, to explaining why people are okay with

this prison and are happy doing what they’re supposed to do.

Even though the main idea is us trapped in a prison, there can still be multiple

viewpoints. The speaker says, “Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, should find brief

solace there, as I have found.” (13-14). It says specifically “brief” meaning the love for that

prison doesn’t last forever. Instead of looking at it like a way of people liking what they do, you

could look at it like an actual prison. People are forced to be trapped within the norms of what

they do and if they explore freedom, they could be punished or ruin the chance they have at life.

This viewpoint is sadly realistic. Most people are told to go to college or that they’re born to do a

certain job and if they stray off that path, things will be ruined. So theoretically, we’re trapped in

a prison of doing what we should do not what we want to do. The term prison is never used

positively, so a reason to defend this theory is that if it was meant to be used in a good way,
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saying we enjoy what we’re supposed to do a different word could’ve been used to give off a

positive feeling. When they use the word prison, you think about being trapped and suffering

with something you don’t want to. The speaker talks about his own prison as well, with writing

sonnets.

Sonnets are simple at first glance, but are actually very complicated. According to

EBSCO, “​The sonnet is a fourteen-line, traditionally rhyming poem,” (EBSCO). This means

that the structure of sonnets are very constricted. While others are trapped in a prison, the

speaker is as well, since he is someone that writes sonnets, he’s constricted to the 14 lines and

specific rhyme schemes, but he enjoys it. Even though he doesn’t have a lot of freedom, maybe if

he did his writing wouldn’t be so successful so sticking to a specific script can be helpful in what

he wants to do with his life and being successful. Sonnets are a very specific type of poem, and

it’s very rare to see one that doesn’t follow the rhyme scheme. But like most, “Nuns Fret Not”

has a specific rhyme scheme. What’s interesting is that despite being so short in length, there are

many different meanings and many other poems with longer length might not share the same

thing as sonnets. It’s also interesting seeing how much information can be put into such little

lines. Relating back to the poem, the short yet complex writing pattern easily shows why sonnets

confine writing, but still gives you some freedom to express what you want, like Wordsworth

does.

“Nuns Fret Not” is a perfect example of a normal sonnet. With a common rhyme scheme

and the 14 lines, it shows the art of poetry first hand. Even though it was made hundreds of years

ago, the meaning is still relevant to this day. The speaker talks about people being
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imprisoned in a certain lifestyle, but that’s what they enjoy. Even though there are many possible

meanings, they all seem to be similar. When he talks about his own prison that he’s trapped in,

he talks about sonnets themselves, being forced to stick to a certain style but that’s what he

enjoys. Maybe, even though we almost have to stick to a certain path, it’s what’s supposed to

happen because just like the poem said, the weight of liberty might be too much for people to

handle.
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Work Cited

Rholetter, Wylene, PhD. "Sonnet." Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature, 2014. EBSCOhost.

Wordsworth, William. “Nuns Fret Not” Norton Introduction to Literature, 12th Ed., edited by

Kelly J. Mays, W.W. Norton, 2016, pp. 938.