Mullen’s “Dim Lady” is not an actual <a data-internal-link data-link-type="Literary Device" href="https://www.supersummary.com/sonnet/">sonnet</a>, but it pays homage to the sonnet form, a highly formal scheme of 14 rhymed and metered lines made famous by Italian poet Petrarch in the 1400s. No <a data-internal-link data-link-type="Literary Device" href="https://www.supersummary.com/meter/">meter</a> is present in “Dim Lady;” its rhymes do not follow a scheme, and there are only 12 lines rather than the traditional 14. Despite these differences, “Dim Lady” does allude to a very famous sonnet by William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130, by attending in a similar <a data-internal-link data-link-type="Literary Device" href="https://www.supersummary.com/tone/">tone</a> and approach to a traditional sonnet subject: love and intimacy. A volta, or a turn in the speaker’s subject and/or thought that is a frequent feature of sonnets, is observable in Line 10 of the poem. In Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnets, the volta usually occurs at the end of the octave, the first eight-line section of the poem, and at the beginning of the sestet, the second six-line section of the poem. In Shakespearean, or English, sonnets, the volta appears before the final <a data-internal-link data-link-type="Literary Device" href="https://www.supersummary.com/couplet/">couplet</a>. The volta in “Dim Lady” occurs in Line 10, and as the poem consists of twelve lines, this location of the poem’s version of a volta links the poem more closely with the Shakespearean form than with the Petrarchan.

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Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love

Harryette Mullen

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Dim Lady

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