Memorial Day: The Unmaking of a Sonnet

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Memorial Day is a reflection on loss and renewal in time of war. It tells the story, in her own words, of a young American woman’s falling in love, bereavement and remaking of her life after the death of her husband in battle.She records her memories in a series of fourteen free sonnets, each of which is written according to the principle of “centered form”. This simply means that each sonnet unfolds from its center.This principle of “centered form” is also reflected in the order of writing of the sonnets which is revealed in the two sonnets that open and close the series, the preludium and postludium. They comprise respectively the seventh and eighth lines of the individual sonnets, beginning with Sonnet 8 and ending with Sonnet 1.The dominant meter of the poems is accentual and measured: there are generally six stresses per line, with a cæsura, or rest, in the middle of each. The stresses and pauses are lighter or darker depending on the relative weight and colour which you choose to ascribe to her words. Their message follows.