Piazza Piece (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Crowe Ransom
- First Published: 1925
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry, Sonnet
- Subjects: Love or romance, Dreams, Death or dying, Youth, Old age or elderly people
Written as a Petrarchan sonnet (fourteen lines of iambic pentameter rhyming abbaacca deeffd), “Piazza Piece” illustrates Ransom's skill with traditional forms. The octave (first eight lines) and sestet (remaining six lines) are an attempted dialogue between age (an elderly man) and youth (a young lady). Their differing attitudes make “Piazza Piece” essentially a debate poem (two characters argue the merits of diametrically opposite philosophical positions).
The old man's message is human decline and eventual death. He tries to attract the lady's attention and...
[The entire page is 501 words long]
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