Look - A Sonnet

Look beyond the full moon and burning sun

Beyond ends of earth or depths of seas

Look beyond until you have seen the One

Until you find the key that sets you free

Look to Him who made the evergreens

Made the rivers flow from mountainous hills

Look at each season and the changing leaves

Changes, but like your mind are candid stills

Look not to personal gains or pleasures

Give them up! Search for something that's worth more

Look past the moment and saved up treasures

Past bad memories that go out the door

Only when we look can we truly see

Only when we see can we truly be

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This poem was written as a Shakespearean sonnet [Fortunately I had the sense to detail a meaning to this one]. I chose to write it in this form because it follows an intricate rhyme scheme and, as I began to write, I found that it rhymed [haha]. Also it is written in iambic pentameter as most Shakespearean sonnets are.

The them of this poem is self-realization and taking time from the pace of society to look around and sense a higher purpose or deeper meaning. If there is a conflict, it would be between human and self.

Repetition was used as a literary device to emphasize the point of the theme. Every first and third line begins with the word 'look' in each stanza, and it's not a coincidence that it is also the title [I used to point out the obvious a lot].

Metaphor and simile is used accordingly within the poem. The key to me represents Jesus who is the bridge between ourselves and The One (God)(3-4). The mind is being compared to a camera because they both store memories; both physically and mentally (8).


[circa 2006]