Reading Response: Lines of Life Landon

Lines 101 to 104 in Lines of Life by Letitia Elizabeth Landon, she uses imagery and repetition to depict what the reader can assume to be her ultimate dream as an artist; also I believe this stanza in particular helps the reader to understand why she chose this title. The footnotes of the Norton text tells us that Landon’s, “Title may reference Shakespeare’s sonnet 16…questioning the power of art to bestow immortality”. I agree with this analysis because of lines 101 to 104 in the poem. In lines 101 and 102 Landon uses imagery to depict the scene of a “pale youth by his dim lamp, himself a dying flame”.

The language Landon uses is very effective in creating a vision for the reader. The repition of the image of a flame is also effective in depicting a vision for the reader. Also, when Landon mentions that the, “pale youth” is, “Himself a dying flame” it reminds the reader of his mortality. This emphasis of mortality also strengthens my resolve to agree with the text that the title is a reference to Shakespeare’s sonnet 16. In lines 103 and 104 Landon says, “From many an antique scroll beside, choose that which bears my name? The language Landon uses indicates that the image of the “pale youth” is far in the future because her work is an “antique scroll”. Landon, continuing to use vivid imagery, is once again emphasizing the notion that her work will make her immortal; not in the literal sense, but in the sense that though she may be physically dead her ideas live on forever and be valued by future generations; again strengthening the argument that the text makes, that the title of this piece is a reference to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 16.