"Sonnet 19" by Lady Mary Wroth

Sonnet 19

"...Thus of leaves, her farewell carpets made:

Their fall, their branches, all their mornings prove

With leafless naked bodies, whose hues fade

From hopeful green to wither in their love:..."

• The speaker characterizes the dead leaves on the ground as a farewell carpet maybe to symbolize the farewell of his relationship with her lover.
• Besides, the fallen leaves may be a metaphor for the tears she cried.
• Or maybe that she has something before, and now she doesnt, and she compares this with a tree and its fallen leaves.
• "hopeful green" is used by Phamphilia to refer to the relationship in the beggining.

"... In dying colors make a grief-full role.

so much, alas, to sorrow are they pressed

By Lady Mary Wroth

• Here, the speaker compares herself with trees.
• she describes the trees " in dying colors" which is meant to accentuate the sorrow that they feel.
• "Dying colors" also refers to the state of a tree in winter and winter is associated with darkness, coldness, and emptiness.

" Come, darkest night, becoming sorrow best;

Light, leave thy light, fit for a lightsome soul...."

"...The very trees with hanging heads condole

Sweets summers parting, and of leaves distress..."

• The speaker, Phamphilia, use the image of the night to refer to the sorrow and darkness .
• The night itself represents sadness, whereas the light referred into the second line represents joy and happiness.
• The repetition of the word light is used to communicate the speaker's desire for happiness despite her commanding it away.
• The speaker commands light to go away because she feels her soul is not "lightsome" -or joyful- one, deserving of light.

• Here Amphilanthus is compared with the summer. Saying that it controls the very trees. means that he controls Phamphilia.
• She uses " the very trees" to show that she recognizes the huge control Amphilanthus has over her.
• The imagery involved with "hanging heads" serves to better communicate the sorrow felt by Phamphilia in the absence of Amphilanthus.
• The alliteration used in "Sweet summers" shows the appreciation for it. Summer is connected with joy, happiness, light and life.

Style

• Sonnet 19 is an English, or Shakespearean sonnet.
• It is composed of 14 lines, has three quatrains and a couplet that ends with the sonnet.
• The rhyme scheme of a quatrain is ABAB and of a couplet is CC

sonnet 19

"...Darkness doth truly suit with me oppressed,

Whom absence power doth from mirth control:..."

Come darkest night, becoming sorrow best;

Light; leave thy light; fir for a lightsome soule;

Darknes doth truly suit with me opressed

Whom absence' power doth from mirthe control:

The very trees with hanging heads condole

Sweet summer's parting, and of leaves distressed

In dying colours make a grief-full roll;

So much, alas, to sorrow are they pressed,

Thus of dead leaves her farewell carpet’s made:

Their fall, their branches, all their mournings prove;

With leafless, naked bodies, whose hues fade

From hopeful green, to wither in their love:

If trees, and leaves for absence, mourners be

No marvel that I grieve, who like want see.

context

"...If trees, and leaves for absence mourners be,

No marvel that I grieve, who like want see."

• As its meant before,the speaker finds darkness as something of her own.
• She thinks that being oppressed by darkness suits her.
• The second line refers to Amphilanthus directly.
• Phamphila recognizes that his absence is responsible for her depression.
• The phrase "...doth from mirth control..." , in rhyming with "soul", is used to associate Pamphilia's internal anguish with Amphilanthus whims, also meaning that he has control over her.

Biography

• Sonnet 19 is only one sonnet of a sequence in Countess of Montgomery's Urania, by Lady Mary Wroth.
• The sequence is called Phamphilia to Amphilanthus.
• As the title says, the sonnets are spoken by Phamphila to Amphilanthus, her unfaithful lover.
• Phamila has many similar aspects in common with Lady Mary Wroth

• In this couplet, Phamphilia also compares herself with the figure of a tree.
• Here the speaker maintains the metaphor that she is a withering tree, incomplete by the absence of her lover as a tree is incomplete with out summer, or leaves.
• By writing " no marvel that I grieve", the writer shows that Phamphilia is fully recognizing her situation.
• This realization will help Phamphilia to pass trough this situation.
• This couplet shows a transition in Phamphilia's way of thinking.

• Lady Mary Wroth was the daughter of Robert Sidney, later Earl of Leicester, and Barbara Gamage.
• She later married Sir Robert Wroth who had been a reputed wastrel, spendthrift, drunkard, and womanizer
• She died in 1653, at the age of 66.
• First English woman to write a full-length prose romance and a sonnet sequence