Jack Guilfoile WR 13300-04 Kurt Milberger January 26th, 2013 Final Draft

The Dark Side of Summer

In the sonnet Summer by Josiah Conder, the season of summer is described in a way that differs greatly from popular perspective. Most people imagine the summer months as beautiful, cheerful, and a relaxing time of the year. However, in Summer, Conder portrays it as a miserable time. The diction that he uses in every line helps convey this opinion of summer to the reader. Through the use of specific diction and word choice, Conder is able to use pathos to appeal to the readers emotions, allowing him to make an argument for the hopeless feeling that summer brings and give his readers a different perspective of the season. This view of summer may have originated from Conders past experiences. As stated in a brief biography of his life, Josiah Conder was a 19th-century British poet and editor who also ran an abolitionist paper called The Patriot, which sold both in Britain and in the United States. As a child however, Conder was diagnosed with polio that caused him to lose sight in one of his eyes. The next year, in an attempt to stop the spread of polio throughout the rest of his body, Conder lost sight in his other eye and became blind. He was able to gain his sight back in one eye, but that experience is what caused him to get into writing since he now had a better appreciation for what he could see (Poem Hunter). Conders opinion of summer can be seen in the first quatrain of the sonnet. To introduce summer, Conder says, Now day survives the sun. The pale grey skies / A sort of

dull and dubious lustre keep / As with their own light shining. (1-3) This is totally unorthodox compared to the normal praise that summer receives. As a reader, describing something that is normally so positive in such a negative way really draws your attention to the sonnet itself. The diction used here, words such as survives; pale; and dull carry a specific tone that is rarely linked with the idea of summer. In a way, there is a sort of juxtaposition there. Summer, a time of freedom, warmth, and sunshine is described in the exact opposite way. In this way, Conder is able to use diction as a key tool in persuading his audience to look at summer in a whole different manner. Conder also focuses on a more natural perspective of summer in his description, causing the reader to focus on a different aspect of the summer experience. At this point, Conder utilizes ethos by talking about his own experiences to strengthen his argument. Based on Conders childhood experiences with his vision, it makes a lot of sense that he would focus on the natural beauty of the landscape on a summer day. In the first quatrain, Conder says, Nature lies / Slumbering, and gazing on me in her sleep, / So still, so mute, with fixed and soul-less eyes. (3-5) At this point in the sonnet, Conder has personified nature as if it is a human with soul-less eyes. He has given life to something not commonly thought of as being so alive. In doing so, he is able to give it human-like characteristics and make those emotions connect better with the reader. It is also easier for the reader to relate and imagine the image that Conder is trying to create if he brings life to it. Trying to imagine a non-living thing with fixed and soul-less eyes is a lot more difficult than something that is alive. The personification is a crucial tool used by Conder to give the reader a better sense of that negative and dark connotation that Conder believe summer carries.

The sonnet also includes a shift in its diction that is quite dramatic and makes Conders point even stronger. Summer begins with a boring image of the landscape and nature. Words such as dull, still, mute, and slumbering all contribute to this mundane, lifeless image. However, in the final quatrain and couplet, Conder states, In the black west the clouds a storm betoken / And all things seem a spectral gloom to wear. / The cautious bat resents the lingering light, / And the long-folded sheep wonder it is not night. (11-14). In these final four lines, a shift seems to occur in the image of summer. Instead of the vapid image previously described, there is more of a sense of fear as a storm is beginning to form off in the distance. The black clouds forming in the west, and the cautious bat help to create this sense of fear in the new image of summer (11-13). The purpose of having a shift like this may be to exaggerate and emphasize the ominous opinion Conder has for summer. Part of it may attribute to his work with abolishing slavery (Poem Hunter). Conder might associate the balmy weather and sweat that he saw in the south and parts of Britain where he played a major role in abolishing slavery. This negative view of summer could be seen as the view the slaves felt each day. They tried each day to survive the sun, and this sort of view of summer may have been much more common for somebody in slavery. Through his experiences, Conder may have picked up this opinion and taken it on for his own. In the end, the shift in the diction of the sonnet in the last four lines help to emphasize Conders negative view of summer. By using specific diction throughout the sonnet, Conder makes a strong yet unorthodox argument for the hopeless and negative feeling that summer carries. In the first quatrain, he introduces this idea by describing summer as, a sort of dull and dubious lustre keep, where day survives the sun (1-2). Conder also chooses to personify nature

as being somewhat human-like, appealing a lot stronger to the readers emotions. The final lines of the sonnet change the image of summer from something dull to something to be feared. Conders background and childhood most likely played a strong role in th ese feelings. Being nearly blind, Conder gains a better appreciation and sense for nature and the things surrounding him. Also, Conder played a major role in the abolition of slavery, so he may have envisioned the season of summer as it was perceived by many of the slaves. All of this played a factor in Conders opinion of summer, and he revealed this uncommon view through the use of diction and word choice in his sonnet.

Works Cited Page

"Biography of Josiah Conder." Poem Hunter. N.p., 02 04 2013. Web. 6 Feb 2013. <.poemhunter.com/josiah-conder/biography/>.