In this strange labyrinth how shall I turn (Sonnet 77) Essay Questions

Identify one important shift in the sonnet. What changes, and why is it important?

One subtle but important shift in Sonnet 77 occurs in the third stanza. At first glance, it seems like Wroth is repeating herself, reiterating the confusing turns of the maze that have tormented her in the last two stanzas. However, her orientation to the maze changes. In the first two stanzas, she is worried about choice, asking herself “Where should I turn?” In the third, she shifts her focus to action, asking instead, “How can I make myself turn?” Resigning herself to the twists of the labyrinth, she commits to testing out each different path, without trying to figure out which route is “right.” This shift speaks to the poem’s skepticism about choice. Trapped in a maze, choosing might seem pretty important, but what really matters is just doing something. That theme is also important in the last stanza, where the speaker embraces the “thread of love.” Following the thread doesn’t allow for any choice at all, but the speaker is fine with that.

Select one word from the sonnet whose meaning seems ambiguous. What do you think it means, and how is it significant to the poem as a whole?

The word “travail” can mean both physical or mental work, and the outcome of that labor. In Line 12 of Sonnet 77, Wroth uses the former meaning in order to emphasize the importance of submitting to the difficulty of the maze, even without any outside guidance or support. By describing “travail” as her “best hire,” the speaker flips the reader’s expectations. When we expect to encounter some kind of help that would make the work of navigating the maze easier, she instead defines difficulty itself as a form of help. This suggests that there is something intrinsically valuable about difficult labor, at least in the context of the maze of romantic love, even when that difficult labor doesn’t lead to any obvious or immediate result.