Daily Trojan Magazine

CREATIVE CALLINGS

After

By SOPHIA KANG
(Lara Graves / Daily Trojan)

Shall I be dearly missed upon my leave?
As dry air carries the cries and the moans
Through desert, with no mothers left to grieve,
The wooden box becomes my sorry throne;
I cannot seem to picture what proceeds
A hollow chest without my beating heart,
The image for which God shan’t plant the seed —
A simple glimpse is greedy on my part —
Perhaps mortals were not meant to behold
The grandeur of the flowing River Styx,
Perhaps I should accept what I’ve been sold
An endless nothing of immortal tricks.

The dark approaches sooner than I hope
But with this danger, I must simply cope.

A sonnet is a 14-line poem in iambic pentameter, utilizing various rhyme schemes and often presenting an argument.

Each of these poems contains a turning point or shift in perspective called a volta. Depending on whether the piece is Shakespearean (English) or Petrarchan (Italian), this shift can occur at the last couplet or between the eighth and ninth lines, respectively.

“After” explores the fleeting, but ultimately human question of “What comes after death?” At the volta, the speaker accepts what Fate hands them, whether or not they feel it is fair to be placed in such a powerless position.

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