Dim Lady

Mullen’s “Dim Lady” is not an actual sonnet, but it pays homage to the sonnet form, a highly formal scheme of 14 rhymed and metered lines made famous by Italian poet Petrarch in the 1400s. No meter is present in “Dim Lady;” its rhymes do not follow a scheme, and there are only 12 lines rather than the traditional 14. Despite these differences, “Dim Lady” does allude to a very famous sonnet by William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130, by attending in a similar tone and approach to a traditional sonnet subject: love and intimacy.

A volta, or a turn in the speaker’s subject and/or thought that is a frequent feature of sonnets, is observable in Line 10 of the poem. In Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnets, the volta usually occurs at the end of the octave, the first eight-line section of the poem, and at the beginning of the sestet, the second six-line section of the poem. In Shakespearean, or English, sonnets, the volta appears before the final couplet. The volta in “Dim Lady” occurs in Line 10, and as the poem consists of twelve lines, this location of the poem’s version of a volta links the poem more closely with the Shakespearean form than with the Petrarchan.