Samuel Daniel - Sonnet II - Go Wailing Verse

Song Meaning

These lines launch a desperate plea, personifying the "wailing verse" as the "infants of my love," born "without a Mother." The speaker tasks these verses with presenting his profound "cares" and "grief," which he claims "exceeds all other." The dominant tone is one of anguish and a desperate need for his beloved's attention, framing his creative output as a direct, painful consequence of her perceived cruelty. The central tension lies in the speaker's attempt to use his poetry, his "verse," as a weapon to break through his lover's "disdain." He instructs the verse to "sigh out a story of her cruel deeds" and to "press to her eyes, importune me some good." This is a raw, almost transactional view of love and art, where the verses are not just expressions but tools designed to "waken her sleeping pity" and elicit a response from a heart he describes as "hard." The most striking craft element is the extended metaphor of the verses as motherless children. This elevates the speaker's emotional suffering beyond mere personal complaint; it suggests a profound, almost biological consequence of his lover's actions. The "infants" are starved, their "father's grief" is their only inheritance, and their very existence is a testament to the pain inflicted by the "loveless Fair." This writing hits hard because it transforms abstract heartbreak into a tangible, pitiable scene. The speaker isn't just sad; he's a grieving father whose creative work is literally suffering from neglect. The direct commands to the "verse" – "Go," "Sigh out," "Press," "Waken," "Knock," "beg" – create a sense of urgent, almost frantic action, making the reader feel the speaker's desperate hope that his pleas will finally move his "unkind" beloved.