The Deep Dive Anthology

Sonnet XIX (1799) by Robert Southey

Introduction
“Sonnet 19” was written by Robert Southey and published in 1799. Robert Southey was an influential writer for his time, and he would later be appointed the poet laureate (“a poet appointed for life by an English sovereign. . . formerly expected to compose poems for court and national occasions”)[1] of  Britain.[2] Southey’s writings cover a myriad of subjects ranging from the slave trade, the French Revolution, religion, war and its impact on individuals, and nature. In 1797 he received an annuity which allowed him more time to work on his poetry “and in 1797 – 1799 he published a second volume of his Poems,”[3] around the same time this “Sonnet 19” was published. This piece and some of his other poems from this time deal with the topic of nature and its interaction humanity, an area of interest for writers of the Romantic period and beyond.

This sonnet is often overshadowed by Southey’s more famous works. Since his time writing, his work has been featured less in literary anthologies, especially when compared to contemporaries like Lord Byron and Samuel Coleridge. While to an extent his role as poet laureate warrants another look at his works, it is his use of the sonnet, the clever finesse of the imagery, and the romantic styling of the beauty of nature and strong human spirit that earns him a place in this anthology.

Robert Southey’s “Sonnet 19” is also not to be confused with “Sonnet 19” by William Shakespeare. While the two share the same title they are quite distinct from each other. Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 19” is a poem about love and time,[4] and “Sonnet 19” by Southey is a heroic sounding poem, praising the bravery of those who sail and admiration ship that personify the sailors to an extent. Many of Southey’s works look at the human condition and how events and people can impact an individual, so it makes perfect sense that Southey would also delve into how nature can impact the individual as well. Overall, this piece is not meant as a satire and is not written for didacticism, but instead was written to showcase what humanity and nature can be when they interact.




Sonnet XIX
She comes majestic with her swelling sails,
The gallant Ship; along her watery way
Homeward she drives before the favoring gales;
Now flirting at their length the streamers play,
And now they ripple with the ruffling breeze.
Hark to the sailors’ shouts! the rocks rebound,
Thundering in echoes to the joyful sound.
Long have they voyaged o’re the distant seas;
And what a heart-delight they feel at last,
So many toils, so many dangers past,
To view the port desired, he only  knows
Who on the stormy deep for many a day
Hath tost, aweary of his watery way,
And watch’d, all anxious, every wind that blows.[5]



Explication
Southey experimented with various styles of poetry throughout his time writing, and the style featured in this piece is the sonnet. He primarily used this style between 1794 and 1799. A sonnet is a classic western style of poetry that has “a fixed structure. . . is 14 lines long and each line contains 10 syllables.”[6] In “Sonnet 19”, Southey uses this format and sets the beat of each line to an iambic pentameter (a pattern of rhythm in poetry that consists of emphasized syllables and un-emphasized syllables).[7] The iambic pentameter gives Sonnet XIX a galloping beat that mimics the up and down path that the ship would take as the ocean tosses it on the waves.


The rhyme scheme also plays a role in how the reader experiences the piece. The lines rhyme with every other line, meaning it follows an “ABAB” format which looks like this:

She comes majestic with her swelling sails, (A)
The gallant Ship; along her watery way (B)
Homeward she drives before the favoring gales; (A)
Now flirting at their length the streamers play, (B)

 After that section, the rhyme scheme switches to an “ABBA” format, meaning that one line will rhyme, the second two will rhyme with each other, and the fourth line will rhyme with the first, looking instead like this:
And now they ripple with the ruffling breeze. (A)
Hark to the sailors’ shouts! the rocks rebound, (B)
Thundering in echoes to the joyful sound. (B)
Long have they voyaged o’re the distant seas; (B)

This line is then followed by two rhyming lines, before the last four lines close out the  piece once again in “ABBA” format. This near consistent rhyme scheme helps to pull the reader along through the piece by influencing the reader to want to finish each rhyme, and the inconsistencies in the rhyme scheme help further display Southey’s theme of nature, specifically the subtle and dramatic ways it changes and impacts humanity. The sections where the rhyme changes are reminiscent of the way the ocean changes in unpredictable ways which gives the reader an impression of what the sailors may have experienced, the excitement of coming into port, and the memory of past storms. Finally, the completion of the rhyme at the end of the poem implicitly compounds the hopeful tone at the end of the poem by bringing it to a predictable and comfortable conclusion, a tone that the glorious depiction of the sailors and the sea imply.

Overall, “Sonnet 19” displays the sea in a very positive light, even beyond the mechanical techniques Southey uses in his writing. Throughout the piece, the ship is referred to in a heroic manner and the sailors in a very positive light, with the line “. . . what heart-delight they feel at last. . .” displaying the courage it took for them to reach a port, a delight that has been strengthened by their encounter with the dangers of the sea. This portrayal of humanity’s bravery and courage is well balanced with the portrayal of the sea as something wild and free, and beautiful for that. The poem references the wind in the streamers and the waves that buoy the ship, and so while it is a beautiful image, and the characters in the poem are finally arriving home, the sea is still the sea in all its wild glory. This poem seems very hopeful and proud of humanity’s ability to traverse the sea, all the while still appreciating the nature that all of humanity exists within.

For More Information:

Southey and his writings:
More works by Southey:
More about sonnets:
 
[1] “Poet Laureate Definition & Meaning,” Merriam-Webster (Merriam-Webster), accessed December 13, 2022, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poet%20laureate.
[2] “Robert Southey,” Encyclopedia Britannica (Encyclopedia Britannica, inc.), accessed December 13, 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Southey.
[3] Britannica, “Robert Southey”, August 8, 2022.
[4] William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 19: Devouring Time, Blunt Thou the Lion's...,” Poetry Foundation (Poetry Foundation), accessed December 13, 2022, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45088/sonnet-19-devouring-time-blunt-thou-the-lions-paws.
[5] Robert Southey, “The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Southey LL. D,” (New York, 1851), 120.
[6] “Sonnet,” Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, accessed November 14, 2022, https://clpe.org.uk/poetry/poetic-forms/sonnet#:~:text=A%20sonnet%20is%20a%20formal,10%20syllables%20in%205%20pairs.
[7] “Sonnet,” Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, accessed November 14, 2022, https://clpe.org.uk/poetry/poetic-forms/sonnet#:~:text=A%20sonnet%20is%20a%20formal,10%20syllables%20in%205%20pairs.

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