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Sonnet
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Themes
Overcoming as a Matter of Endurance
At the core of “Sonnet” is the internal struggle that moves the speaker to utterance. While the speaker’s particular struggle is explicit, it is nonetheless clear that the speaker’s goal is to get his heart to “be brave” (Line 1) and to overcome the hardship. To do this, the speaker—and by extension, his heart—must not “let [his] strength and courage fail” (Line 4).
The poem’s depiction of this overcoming is rather unique. Johnson uses many techniques and double meanings to hint that the struggle is related to race and that “the coming morrow” (Line 7) will bring the eradication of such prejudice. The temporariness of prejudice, and the inevitability of beneficial change (even if the “battle” is “thick” and “fierce the fight” [Line 13]), means that overcoming requires endurance rather than strength. This is perhaps why the speaker’s first injunction to his heart is to “be brave” (Line 1) and why “strength” is unmentioned until the fourth line. Endurance’s importance is easy to miss, as it relies on the proper interpretation of the word “For” (Line 5), which indicates the end goal of the heart’s fortitude and is not a filler for metrical requirements (as is typical in metrical poetry). Grammatically, the construction of Lines 5-7 informs the heart that “Thy coming morrow” (Line 7) is “certain” (Line 5); all the heart must do is endure.
This endurance is similar to that seen in the Old Testament, particularly in narratives like the Book of Job, wherein an individual is asked to endure suffering with the promise of future reward. The poet-speaker welcomes this theology of endurance; the final lines state that “[t]here is a power making for the right” (Line 14). The suggestion of an external, higher power that guides history toward its proper end is a common notion of Christian providence.
Self-Consolation as Empathy and Honesty
Despite the ending couplet’s language of battle and conflict, much of “Sonnet” is about consoling and restoring oneself. While this self-consolation relates to endurance and the kind of overcoming that Johnson’s poem describes, it is nonetheless a separate theme with its own representation.
In “Sonnet,” the heart and the speaker have similar conceptions of the problem they face: The speaker makes no attempt to minimize the problem in order to console the heart, and he continually affirms that he “know[s]” (Line 3) the struggle that the heart faces and that “’[t]is darkest when the night is furthest worn” (Line 8). This latter line demonstrates that the speaker is sympathetic to his heart and does not deny that things may get worse as the night is “worn” (Line 8). The speaker’s consolation, in other words, stays realistic and recognizes the heart’s struggles, offering a solution in the “ever inspiring hope” (Line 12) and in the inevitability of change rather than in platitudes or heroic feats.
Physical and Metaphysical Obscuration
Darkness and shrouds serve various functions in Johnson’s “Sonnet.” If there is one defining image within the work, it would likely be either the “dark and drear” (Line 3) way or the “raven-winged night” (Line 5). Darkness is used not only for its symbolic breadth and creation of powerful imagery; one of darkness’ most important functions in the poem is its physical obscuration of the truth. This obscuration is one of the poem’s main themes.
Traditionally, night and darkness often represent confusion and a lack of understanding—consider the “Dark Ages” as a period of scientific ignorance, or the invective “dim-witted.” Likewise, intelligent people are called “bright,” and the age of the Scientific Revolution is called the “Enlightenment.” Darkness impedes empirical investigation, and things often appear differently when behind a veil of shadows. The sun—and, by extension, light more generally—has long been revered in Western cultures for its power to reveal or uncover the truth of things.
One of the speaker’s heart’s difficulties is its envelopment in this darkness that obscures a path forward (“do not in thine own gross darkness grope” [Line 10]). The turn at the poem’s ninth line signifies not only a change in tone but also the speaker’s determination to have his heart “[l]ook up, and out, beyond surrounding clouds” (Line 9) and to see past the “gross darkness” (Line 10). The darkness hinders the heart’s sight of the “coming morrow” as “clear and bright” (Line 7), whereas the speaker does see this reality. The speaker’s certainty is reflected in the “blushing morn” (Line 6) that blushes out of embarrassment for the things the heart thought it saw in the darkness.
Beyond references to “darkness” (Line 10), “clouds” (Line 9), “shrouds” (Line 11), and other elements that obscure the truth, the theme of obscuration is also present in the speaker’s inability to state the nature of his struggle outright—therefore, in some sense, keeping it obscure.
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