Sonnet

Torture

From body and mind come sweat and blood

Exams and papers force boiled tears

Cramming studies, one to two A.M

Taking risks, leads great reward, have no fear



Harsh onsequences will always follow

But poisons will try to taint and kill me

Without good judgement I turn to hollow

To the big, bright future I hold the key



Even though the laziness pays off now

After college, in the upcoming time

Sought wishes, riches, cars, jewels, will somehow

And unknowingly turn out to be mine



This next theory is one parents prefer

Make the smart choice, pay now or pay later




Torture Analysis

Though multiple lessons were being taught through my sonnet, the main aspect of my piece was to educate the reader on the importance of trying hard in school and the sacrifices you will have to make in order to reach your goals. “Torture” seemed to be the most appropriate name for a poem with a concept of “pay now or pay later” because many people have personally labeled school as “suffering” or “unnecessary pain”. These ideas are what aided me in deciding my title for the sonnet, and in the next few paragraphs I will be analyzing the remainder of my sonnet in greater detail.
I wanted the first of stanza of “torture” to be particularly active with the use of alliteration (giving inanimate objects human characteristics). So, the first stanza held the thought of school and sports. Since I attend one of the best college preparatory schools in the nation, and I play two sports (soccer and track), any person can already tell that my life is quite demanding and filled with few breaks. In order for the reader to have a sense of what I go through each day I required the used of harsh nouns and adjectives to help bring the four short lines to life. Words such as blood, sweat, boiled, and tears. However, the last line, “Taking risks, leads great reward, have no fear” is one of my personal favorite quotes because it can be applied well to both school and sports. Sometimes in life you have to make important decisions and take risks in order to get what you want. The outcome will not always be in your favor but you have to take the good with bad.

The entire second verse had lines referring to the “harsh consequences” that will always follow every decision you make. Every decision, good or bad, still has helpful and harmful consequences that follow. In the second line of the second stanza I mentioned what will happen during the many years I am in college and high school. I will be faced with the influence of drugs and alcohol. As an athlete, those things are the “poisons that will try to taint me”, and if I do not make the right decisions my life will seem meaningless and empty.

But the final line to this second stanza was a turning point from sad and gloomy consequences to “the big, bright future” I look forward to. But I “hold the key” to my future and with the choices I make, I can influence my future and how I want it to be.

Many wise people have told me that hard work will pay off significantly in the future, while others say, “laziness pays off now”. Though languor (laziness) is the easiest path, it is not always the right one, and therefore I added a variation, or change, in topic to the concluding lines of my sonnet. I moved from the topic of punishments, and how one mistake can change everything, to the wonderful rewards that await you after all the grueling work and sacrifices. For instance, hard work will get you into a good college and help you get a good education. With the good education you can obtain a good, well paying job that can lead you to prosperity with “cars, riches, and jewels.”

The last two lines of my piece was the conclusion of my sonnet. I concluded with the purpose of my sonnet, which was to teach the lesson of “pay now or pay later.” That line is one repeated time and time again to me by my mom. She wants me to make the small sacrifices now, like not always going out to parties with friends, in order to make my life much more enjoyable in the future, like living in a nice house and driving an expensive car.

“The small sacrifices now will turn into great rewards later on,” is what she says to me everyday. At first, I assumed she was just “being a mom” and doing her job by saying something like that. But now that I am older and much more mature, I began to realize how important it is to put in the effort now, make the right choices, and live life to the fullest later on.