Kaitlyn Chow                                                                                                  April 16, 2015

ELA Writing                                                                                                                    812

Heart Poem Reading Response

Response to Another Sonnet for Stephan

            Alvin Lester Sitomer’s poem “Another Sonnet for Stephan” stood out to me because of the main theme of the poem. The theme of the poem was life and growing up. Evidence that this was the theme was because the narrator writes about how they watch this little boy grow up in different stages. The poem flowed very smoothly and all of the lines related to the theme. Specifically, lines 1-4 stood out to me because it expresses the narrator’s happy reaction to the boys joy. It shows the relationship they had and how the narrator loved this young boy.

            The theme in this poem is not contradicted and, as I mentioned before, all the lines relate to the theme. The poem talks about the relationship between the narrator and the boy, and the sonnet continues to show that this boy grew up well. It keeps expanding and showing the different ways the boy was fortunate.

            The audience that the poem is written to is everyone. I say this because it’s a poem about a boy growing up, with the narrator alongside to watch him every time he does. It’s not specifically for guardians or parents, not for only boys, but for everyone because we can all relate to this sonnet in some sort of way. We all have our prideful and grateful moments where we are happy to be alive as the narrator seemed to be because of how proud he was of the boy growing up.

            Throughout the poem I have also observed the speakers tone. The speakers tone is proud and they seem to know this boy well, as they care for him deeply. The last few lines, lines 13 and 14 in the sonnet emphasizes the narrators feeling towards the boy by saying, “The boy, the youth, the man are each now gone/ Except that in my heart they linger on.” These lines have a great significance to the poem, as it ends in a beautiful way because the narrator seems very wistful and remembers the times when the boy was young.

            When I read this poem, I felt happy and grateful. The reasons I feel this way is because it was emotional to hear about how proud the narrator was of the growing boy whom he watched at a young age, and he appreciates the time with the boy as he grows. In addition, it also made me happy because the boy became successful, and he made the narrator proud and grateful for this boy in his life. Towards the end of the sonnet, even though, “The boy, the youth, the man are each now gone,” the narrator knows the boy became successful and grew up well, which made the narrator happy.