Show Me The Body That Brides Its Quest Analysis

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In “Show me the body that brides its quest”, critically acclaimed poet Karen Volkman manages to write a Petrarchan sonnet while still maintaining a level of originality and novelty. Given that this piece is written in a traditionally Italian form, rather than English, there's a slight sense of irony in the allusion to Shakespeare’s Hamlet that travels throughout the piece. Volkman consistently matches the glorification of Ophelia’s suicide with her use of extremely euphonious and beauty-oriented diction. While Queen Gertrude describes the image of her death as “mermaid-like” (Shakespeare 4.7.201), here Ophelia’s pose is similarly described as “maiden-postured” (11). Beyond the literal, Volkman’s haunting and challenging lyricism shrouds the

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