Love Song for Alex, 1979

“Love Song for Alex, 1979” is a sonnet in that it has 14 lines, but it isn’t a strict sonnet, as it doesn’t have a set rhyme scheme. The poem rhymes until Line 10 with an ABCBDEFFE rhyme scheme, and there are no rhymes from Lines 10-14. Half the lines have 10 syllables that alternate between unstressed and stressed (Lines 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 14), four lines have 11 syllables (Lines 4, 8, 11, 12), two have 12 (Lines 10, 13), and one has 13 (Line 7), but they roughly follow the 10 syllables of iambic pentameter. The poem has a first-person narrator, likely Margaret Walker, as it is often considered a poem to her husband Firnist Alexander. Some sources say Walker wrote the poem for Alexander after his death, but the title (1979) shows that either it was written a year before his death, or she wrote it as though he were still alive.

The sonnet begins with some terms of endearment, highlighted by possessive wording: “my sweet patootie” (Line 1). Walker simultaneously expresses her feelings for the man and characterizes him for the

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