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Sonnet 99
29
Message of the Sonnet
The main message of this sonnet is theft of a loved one. The author is condemning four different types of flowers for stealing attributes of his lover. First being Violets, second Lilies, third Marjorie, and fourth Roses. Violets stole their smell and color, Lilies their whiteness from his (lover's) hand, Marjorie his curly hair, and roses their colors.
Sonnet 99
Number of lines
The usually number of lines in a sonnet is 14, but in sonnet 99 there are 15 lines. This helps the message because it seems as if the author stole the extra line.
The beginning of the sonnet has the author scolding a Violet for stealing attributes of her Lover. She says that the Violet stole its smell from her lover, and then says the Violet stole her color from her lovers blood. She then see that both the Lily and the Marjoram stole the color of her hand and hair respectively. Final she sees a group of roses. One was red with shame and a second was white with despair.
Flowers
Anais Mitchell
The forward violet thus did I chide:
Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,
If not from my love's breath? The purple pride
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells
In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dy'd.
The lily I condemned for thy hand,
And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair;
The roses fearfully on thorns did stand,
One blushing shame, another white despair;
A third, nor red nor white, had stol'n of both,
And to his robbery had annexed thy breath;
But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth
A vengeful canker eat him up to death.
More flowers I noted, yet I none could see,
But sweet, or colour it had stol'n from thee.
What I wanted was to fall asleep
Close my eyes and disappear
Like a petal on a stream, a feather on the air
Lily white and poppy red
I trembled when he laid me out
You won?t feel a thing, he said, when you go down
Nothing gonna wake you now
Dreams are sweet until they?re not
Men are kind until they aren?t
Flowers bloom until they rot and fall apart
Is anybody listening?
I open my mouth and nothing comes out
Nothing
Nothing gonna wake me now
Flowers, I remember fields
Of flowers, soft beneath my heels
Walking in the sun
I remember someone
Someone by my side
Turned his face to mine
And then I turned away
Into the shade
You, the one I left behind
If you ever walk this way
Come and find me lying in the bed I made
Personification
The forward violet thus did I chide:
Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,
Metaphor
The purple pride
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells
In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dy'd.
The author personifies each flower to be able to steal attributes. This helps the meaning because with out it the sonnet would not make that much sense.
The Violet is the same color has his lover's blood. This could just be the actual color, or it could mean his lovers status. The purple pride could mean his lover is of high status.