Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The sonnet is written in the first-person subjective point of view.
Form and Meter
The poem is written in iambic pentameter.
Metaphors and Similes
The poem revolves around an extended metaphor in which a labyrinth stands in for a complicated relationship in which every choice feels like a guess with potentially dangerous consequences.
Alliteration and Assonance
N/A
Irony
The second line of the poem, "ways are on all sides, but the way I miss," is an example of situational irony. The speaker finds herself in a labyrinth with far too many possible paths to follow, yet none of them are "the way." "The way" can refer simply to the right path—none of the paths are right—but it is also a religious allusion, to the quote from the New Testament, where Jesus says "I am the way, the truth, and the light." Wroth implies that although the speaker is confronted with many options when it comes to romantic love, none of those options are "the way"—Christ's love.
Genre
Sonnet
Setting
The action of the sonnet takes place in an unnamed time in a dark labyrinth.
Tone
The tone used in the sonnet is a desperate one, in line with the desperation felt by the narrator.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the narrator and the antagonist is the labyrinth.
Major Conflict
The major conflict in the sonnet is between a rational, simple, religious love and the confusing maze of romantic love in which the speaker is trapped.
Climax
The sonnet reaches its climax when the narrator realizes that the important choice is not where to turn in the labyrinth, but rather choosing to move at all.
Foreshadowing
Because this sonnet is the first in a crown of sonnets, the first line of this poem foreshadows the conclusion of the sequence, which will end with this same line. In this context, the first line foreshadows that even though the speaker seems to reach a state of new clarity by the end of this sonnet, she will never fully leave behind her feelings of uncertainty.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The reference to "the way" in line 2 is likely an allusion to Christ's statement, "I am the way, the truth, and the light" in the gospel of John.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
In the second stanza, Wroth personifies the abstract concepts of "shame" and "crosses," both of which interact with the speaker while they impede her progress through the labyrinth.
Hyperbole
N/A
Onomatopoeia
N/A
