After 50 Years by William Faulker
Her house is empty and her heart is old,
And filled with shades and echoes that deceive
No one save her, for still she tries to weave
With blind bent fingers, nets that cannot hold.
Once all men’s arms rose up to her, ‘tis told,
And hovered like white birds for her caress:
A crown she could have had to bind each tress
Of hair, and her sweet arms the Witches’ Gold.
Her mirrors know her witnesses, for there
She rose in dreams from other dreams that lent
Her softness as she stood, crowned with soft hair.
And with his bound heart and his young eyes bent
And blind, he feels her presence like shed scent,
Holding him body and life within its snare.
The poem I chose, After 50 Years by William Faulker, falls into the category of Petrarchan sonnets. It begins with an octave followed by "the turn" and then a sestet. The rhyme scheme also fits with Petrarchan poetry: ABBAABBA CDCDDC. The sestet has a slight variation from the typical Petrarchan sestet, but it is still very similar. The end is much darker and lonelier than the beginning, and this change coincides with the shift from the octave to the sestet. Faulkner's vivid imagery enhances the shift as well.
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