The Petrarchan sonnet speaks of unattainable love, depicting the lady in question as a model of perfection and inspiration. The form divides into two parts, first eight and then six lines.
This was written two and a half months before Evelyn's beloved sister Rose died of acute tuberculosis.
What, then, is peace that soothes the turmoiled heart,
The shattered spirit and the wintered mind?
Leaves desolation but the ragged rind
Of living to a soul that yearns a part
More worthy of its awesome, fated start
Upon life’s ruffled course? Is my path lined
With paltry deed and stress, or shall I find
Pale, star-flecked dreams have mapped a glowing chart?
I pondered wistfully and, as I thought,
A rose-leaf sighed within a green-cheeked bough,
Contented with the sweetness that it made,
The beauty that its trembling lips have bought.
Resignedly the plowman turned his plough,
And in their time red, quivering sunsets played.
Evelyn Coffey
January 15, 1934
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