A beautiful piece of twisting confusion and reflection, Richard Bruce Nugent’s Sonnet 1 recreates a scene that illuminates more than just a chance encounter. Nugent’s use of imagery to create a feel of loneliness and failure, his repetition of ideas to portray the reoccurrence of these events, and the paradoxical diction that illuminates hopelessness for what may occur between the two men creates a commentary on the turmoil and pain that comes with a non-normative desire and longing.
Flowing imagery attributes greatly to the dark and lonely mood of Nugent’s sonnet. Set at evening, already we are shrouded in shadow, which is then coupled by rain, an even darker setting that closes off the remaining light. By not adding any more detail to the setting, we are simply left standing in a dark rain while he tells us of the figure that has caught his eye. The scene thus has only two beings in it who have yet to speak to one another. In fact, we are not even sure if the other character has yet to notice the narrator, giving an ‘alone’ connection between the two individuals. Setting the scene on a rainy evening with little commentary beyond that leaves one with a solitary feel of the couple. The loneliness is amplified by the imagery of dance that he pulls forth. Dancing, often a happy occurrence full of vibrancy and other people, is made to reflect a solitary stance by comparing only himself in the action. Dancing, too, has a romantic connotation, but again, the narrator is alone. Failure is emulated in this scene, too, by the path of reflection and hesitation the narrator takes. His imagery of an uncouth dance, though continuously fluid, places turmoil into the otherwise smooth scene, especially when coupled with the “refrain”. The idea of a continuous song that emulates a natural order of things danced to with non-fluid, non-normative movements creates an image of discord, the character failing to dance ‘correctly’ and thus failing his appointed role in life. With the shadowy scene set, the pain of these failed encounters comes through crisply, even before his allusions to “another of those episodes”.
With repetition, Nugent not only creates a sense of continuous failure, but also a hopelessness that the narrator seems to ignore as he reflects on this encounter. The second line sets the stage with ‘another of those episodes’, alluding that prior encounters have happened, the next few lines drilling in the idea that this has transpired before and with little success. He still feels an ‘ever-yearning’ and, despite the failure and pain he clearly feels because of these repeated happenings, he continues to search for a fulfillment that seems to be impossible, as his ‘refrain’ and dance indicate. He repeats the idea that these encounters lead to nothing, as well, by stating it is his ‘classic fate’, leaving one to view the scene with hopelessness for the outcome. An understanding that repetition of these occurrences create turbulence within the narrator also helps in comprehending both his longing and hesitation.
The ‘future lie’ as compared with a ‘present truth’ is a beautiful use of paradoxical diction to draw attention to the turmoil Nugent’s poem consists of. The future lie, in this sense, seems to be a future that goes against his constant refrain of ‘It only is as it must be’, a future that holds a satisfied, hopeful end which can’t ever be, while his present truth is the current situation in which he reflects upon the continued, failed occurrences of his short encounters with people. A future lie opposing a present truth is, perhaps, the strongest singular use of Nugent’s paradoxical diction within the sonnet. It pulls the themes of failure, loneliness, hopelessness, and a clear disregard for these ideas together in a way that notes how a queer love or desire can hold such pain and turmoil. However, he uses more subtle comparisons within his poetry that bring to light this same turmoil, such as his ‘choreography uncouth’ while in contrast to the other’s ‘graceful youth’. This creates a feeling that, although the narrator clearly would like to interact with this other, there is a certain discord. The elegance of the other contradicts the sporadic, continuous dance of Nugent, disturbing the idea of queerness and forming a barrier between the two. It calls into question who this other is and if they can speak with one another about such an encounter, again adding to the narrator’s hesitation and dilemma of another failure.
The poem emulates the difficulty of a non-normative desire without having to portray the relationship between an individual of such longings and society itself. The mere reoccurrence of failure and pain discusses the aspects that non-normative relationships tend to have, especially when considering the discrimination that occurred not only to racial minorities but homosexuals in the 1940s when this sonnet was composed. Without discussing more than just a rainy evening and his reflection of the current situation, Nugent clearly states the stinging turmoil that can come with love in a difficult world where, often, queer relationships failed.
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