Brough 1

Charlotte Brough
Ms. Gilhuis
English 9F
3-3-16
Original Poem Commentary

During English class this year we wrote many poems. For this assignment we had to pick one of
our original poems that we created and we had to analyze it. I chose to write about the sonnet I
created because during the process of writing it I had a lot fun expressing my feelings. My sonnet
is called The stronger it is, the stronger you become. The sonnet compares rough winds to the
rough times that happen throughout my life. The reason why I wrote this sonnet was because I got
inspired by how the wind was reacting the day we were brain storming ideas. During that day the
wind was very strong and the sky was grey and gloomy. I also thought about how I can compare
wind to the difficult times Ive had in my life because in my experience the struggles that Ive had
before dont last forever. Rough winds dont last forever, so I thought I should write about how
difficulties in life can make you a stronger person.
My poem that I made is based on of structure of a sonnet. My sonnet has fourteen lines, which is
based of three quatrains and a couplet. Each quatrain contains four lines and the couplet contains
2 lines. The first two quatrains are called an octet and the third quatrain and couplet put together is
called the sestet. My sonnet is written in iambic pentameter which means each line contains 5 feet
or 5 iambs. 1 iamb consists of 2 syllables containing one stressed and unstressed syllable. In each
line of the sonnet there is a total of only 10 syllables. A sonnet also follows a certain pattern or
rhyme scheme. My rhyme scheme in my sonnet is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG . Every sonnet
includes a volta. A volta is the shift or change in an idea or message in your sonnet. The volta in
my sonnet is shown in the first line of the third quatrain in my sonnet. The volta in my sonnet was a
change in idea towards the rough times that was occurring in my life. Before the volta the idea that
was shown was that the rough times that Ive had were going to last forever. The volta changes
this idea by saying that the rough times in life are challenges that help you become a stronger
person and that they wont last forever.
Besides the structure of my sonnet, I added in several literary devices to make the poem more
appealing to the reader. The first literary device that I added was personification, Rough winds
do make the ground much stronger, the wind is given a human characteristic to make the
ground stronger. I added in personification to make it seem realistic and so that reader can
imagine what it looked like. The second literary device I used was a simile, flow as fast as blood
through your vein , this is comparing how fast the winds go to how fast the blood flows through
your veins. The effect of the simile is to compare between how fast the wind flows to how fast the

Brough 2
blood flows through your veins. The third literary device I added was a hyperbole, But thinking as
it will last forever . This creates an over exaggeration to lasting forever because nothing can last
forever especially rough winds. The fourth literary device I used was repetition down, down and
down, this creates more emphasis to the word down . This doesnt just create emphasis, this
creates a bigger meaning by repeating it many times, to show that it always happens. To sum it all
up, these literary devices create more emphasis towards the poem making it more amusing to
read.