S.N
I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move is a poem by Louise Erdrich describing a traumatic flood experienced by a young girl and her grandfather. It is not a sonnet because it exceeds the 14 line limit of a sonnet. The poem also doesn’t seem to follow a rhyme scheme at all. I feel that this free form style was chosen on purpose by the author because the characters in the poem where so profoundly affected by this flood that the use of strict rules and limitations of traditional rhyming poetry would just seem out of place among the strong emotions felt by them. The overall tone of the poem could be described as depressing, mostly due to the diction Erdrich chose to use. She used words such as “helpless,” “hoarse-voiced,” and “broken” all of which create this feeling of despair and sadness. I feel like the characters in this poem are most upset about the destruction of nature this flood caused. In many instances, the poet personifies nature describing its “bones,” “teeth,” and “arteries.” The characters felt that nature was a living entity and were distraught at the thought of it being destroyed.
I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move is a poem by Louise Erdrich describing a traumatic flood experienced by a young girl and her grandfather. It is not a sonnet because it exceeds the 14 line limit of a sonnet. The poem also doesn’t seem to follow a rhyme scheme at all. I feel that this free form style was chosen on purpose by the author because the characters in the poem where so profoundly affected by this flood that the use of strict rules and limitations of traditional rhyming poetry would just seem out of place among the strong emotions felt by them. The overall tone of the poem could be described as depressing, mostly due to the diction Erdrich chose to use. She used words such as “helpless,” “hoarse-voiced,” and “broken” all of which create this feeling of despair and sadness. I feel like the characters in this poem are most upset about the destruction of nature this flood caused. In many instances, the poet personifies nature describing its “bones,” “teeth,” and “arteries.” The characters felt that nature was a living entity and were distraught at the thought of it being destroyed.