Suburban Sonnet Literary Elements

Third-person limited speaker

Fourteen lines, no stanza breaks, iambic pentameter

Zest and love / drain out with soapy water (lines 7-8)
The lemon zest is a metaphor for the woman's energy and vitality, which "drains" away like the material in the pot.

A wave of nausea overpowers / subject and countersubject (lines 6-7)
The "subject" and "countersubject" in the fugue are metaphors for the woman's dual identity as a housewife and a musician.

"children chatter"
Repetition of "c" sounds

"children caper"
Repetition of "m" sounds

"veins ache. Once she played"
Repetition of "aye" sounds (assonance)

"Once she played / for Rubinstein, who yawned."

The woman is presumably a good musician if she gained an audience with Arthur Rubinstein, a famed pianist. Ironically, however, Rubinstein was unimpressed and bored by her performance, since he yawned.

"and wraps it in a paper / featuring: Tasty dishes from stale bread."

The title of the magazine article is ironic. It instructs the reader on how to turn stale bread into a tasty recipe, yet the woman is using the discarded paper to pick up a dead mouse, contrasting with the idealized suggestion of the headline.

Sonnet

A suburban home

Exhausted, disappointed

Protagonist: the woman. Antagonist: strict gendered social roles

The major conflict lies in the battle between the woman's desire to practice and develop her musical skills, and the need to constantly tend to her house and children.

The poem's climax occurs in Line 11, when the children discover a dead mouse in a mousetrap. This line symbolizes the death of the woman's musical dreams as she confronts the reality of her life as a housewife.

The first two lines, which suggest that "it can matter / to no one now if she plays well or not," foreshadow the lack of appreciation for the woman's music that both her children and Rubinstein express throughout the poem.

"Once she played / for Rubinstein, who yawned."

This line alludes to Arthur Rubinstein, a famous twentieth-century pianist.

The fugue is a metonymy because it represents the woman's broader musical efforts.

"two children chatter" (Line 3)

"a pot / boils over" (Lines 5-6)