The Broken Home (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: James Merrill
- First Published: 1965
- Type of Work: Poetic sequence
- Genres: Poetry
- Subjects: Parents and children
The Poem
“The Broken Home” is a sequence of seven sonnets that are connected by imagery and themes, yet each is formally and narratively self-contained. The title refers to the poem’s autobiographical subjects—the divorce of James Merrill’s parents and his concern for the brokenness or incompleteness of his own childlessness.
The first sonnet begins with the poet outside, watching parents and a child framed by a window—a tableau he contrasts with his own “Sunless, cooler” room below. Thoughts of his childless (“Sunless”) existence as a poet for whom...
[The entire page is 1523 words long]
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