Charlotte Smith Sonnets

For this week's reading, we read four sonnets by Charlotte Smith. Because they were sonnets, this week's reading was pretty short like last week's. My favorite sonnet from the four that we read had to be the fourth one. The sonnet is titled, "To the Moon." This sonnet was my favorite because it evoked a clear image in my head while I was reading it. To emphasize,while reading the first part of the sonnet I clearly saw a moon on a warm night shining in the sky. Then after reading the third line, I saw myself standing next to a stream and could see the reflection of the moon bouncing off of the stream with clouds going by in the sky. Because of my love of nature and tranquility, I was able to see myself vividly. Nights like the one described in the first part of the sonnet are some of my favorite moments because of the feeling of calmness and relaxation that can come over you when in that situation. Charlotte Smith even talks about how it brings the calm upon a person in the sixth line.

The next part of the poem goes into a reflective stage because the person is thinking about how the souls of people go to the moon after death. People who have lived and suffered in life have all gone up to the moon where it is more serene. I can see this being rational to some people. To clarify, most of us are taught that people go to heaven after they die. We do not know exactly where heaven is but from what we learned as kids, heaven is upwards. In a literal sense, heaven could be up in the moon. It just depends on a person's interpretation of heaven. I know this is highly unlikely and Charlotte Smith is just using this as a metaphor. Her description of the moon as a place for the souls to reach a serene place is interesting though. In all I really enjoyed this poem.