An Analysis of the Caroline Norton Poem 'To My Books'

Caroline Norton's poem 'To My Books' is largely reflective in nature, focusing on the author's thoughts with regards to her book collection. The poem's narrative homes a thematic dichotomy, with the narrator giving an productive focal point. On one particular side of this division are the books themselves. On the other side is the external planet. The latter of these seems to present the narrator with a notable degree of difficulty. She returns to the former for rest and revitalization.

Norton's sonnet is in the regular 14 lines. These lines are divided up into three quatrains succeeded by a closing couplet. The reader can discern that the sonnet does not adhere to the octave and sestet structure, as there are definite shifts in the narrative's point of view at the beginnings of lines five and 9. The sonnet's rhyming-scheme is AB AB, CD CD, EF EF, GG, for the reason that every single person quatrain includes two distinctly distinctive rhymes. There are roughly either ten or eleven syllables to a line.

Beginning with the initially quatrain, the reader gathers that it is late and the narrator is likely alone. This is conveyed by way of the phrase, 'lonely hour.' A mood of tranquility is straight away established. The theme of the books is presented to the reader at the get started. An element of anthropomorphizing (the attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects) is infused in the books by means of the author's decision of words while addressing them. They are described as 'companions' and 'friends', in the initially and second lines, respectively. The reader is beneath the impression that these books are subtly getting compared with human counterparts.

Such suspicions are confirmed in the second quatrain exactly where this fanciful notion is created. The narrator returns to the books whilst stating, 'this turmoil ending,' and there is the use of enjambement as the sentence in the fifth line runs onto the sixth. A vivid image of the narrator reading is conveyed by means of the line, 'And, o'er your old familiar pages bending.' Echoes of the very first quatrain subtly re-emerge as the narrator seems to acknowledge that individuals are prone to alter and desertion, exactly where as her books can by no means 'adjust' or 'forsake'.

Later in the poem, the reader is below the impression that the thoughts the narrator gleans from her books cease becoming words and turn out to be actual speech. Words such as 'audible', 'hearing', 'spoke' and 'tone' are used to create this impact. This is clarified by referring back to the poem's beginning exactly where the books are described as 'Silent'. In the closing couplet, the reader gathers that the narrator has returned to the external globe. Nevertheless, she is now considerably enriched by means of reading, 'my unripe musings, told so nicely.'

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