Lawless Explication of Matthew Yeager’s 'Sonnet w/ Rose'

First off, it’s a sonnet-length poem. I don’t see a strong volta in the poem, but I think that’s not the sort of poem it aims to be. Sonnet w/ Rose is a condensed poem with focused tone. The poem turns in on itself like the rose in the poem. The title, I believe, is intentionally funny, a reminder that we think we’ve played out the possibility of writing a poem, especially a sonnet, with a rose as the central image. It’s a poem that effectively defies explaining, and a reminder that to explain the poem diminishes the poem, at best, or, at worst calls into question why a poem is written at all. The poem is self-contained; this is also a success. The contents, individual lines, takeaway messages, do not operate well outside the safe confines of the poem itself. The result, (a success, I believe), is that the only sensible way to engage with the poem is simply to read the poem again.

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A quick note:

I’m going to start sharing ‘Lawless Explications’ that I have written. A method I devised to engage with poems and spend more time sitting with them.

Initially, I will be sharing responses that I originally wrote in 2018 and have revised or slightly updated.

The exercise is intended to be a somewhat stream-of-consciousness activity; however, I want to provide what I’d consider better efforts (imho) initially.