interpreted to mean no more than that the man becomes just what he was
before he was born.

Sonnets

/i. The Sluggard./ The metrical scheme of this sonnet is simple: a
strophe balanced by an antistrophe. [See above, page 244.]

/ii. The Mourning for the Fool./ Metrical scheme: a brief strophe and
antistrophe and conclusion.

/iii. The Two Paths./ Strophe, the way of wisdom; antistrophe, the path
of the wicked; conclusion, union of the two in a common image.

/iv. The Creator has made Wisdom the Supreme Prize./ The metrical scheme
of this sonnet is an example of 'antistrophic inversion': that is, two
strophes followed by their antistrophes, but the antistrophe to the
second strophe precedes the antistrophe to the first. [This is sometimes
expressed by the formula a b b a; or (reckoning the number of lines in
each strophe) 4, 6; 6, 4.] The printing makes this clear to the
eye.--The unity of thought in the sonnet is the conception of Wisdom as
a prize. The middle strophe and antistrophe describe the richness of
this prize; the opening strophe makes 'chastening' the cost at which it
is obtained by the individual from the Lord; and the corresponding
antistrophe (at the end) explains the reason for this costliness--wisdom
was the instrument by which the whole universe was created.

/v. Watchfulness of Lips and Heart./ A Prayer in sonnet form. The
metrical scheme is an illustration of 'duplication' applied to
antistrophic structure: a quatrain question (strophe 1) has a couplet
answer (strophe 2); then the quatrain is duplicated into an octet
(antistrophe 1), and the answer is duplicated into a quatrain
(antistrophe 2). [The lines of invocation are not counted in strophe and
antistrophe 2.]

/vi. Wisdom and the Fear of the Lord./ This is one of the most elaborate
sonnets: its metrical scheme combines antistrophic and stanza structure
(above, page 243). There is first a strophe with its antistrophe; then a
series of stanzas; but these stanzas illustrate the metrical device of
'augmenting,' for they increase, as the thought gathers strength, from 3
lines to 5 lines and 6 lines.

/vii. Wisdom and the Strange Woman./ This is at once the foremost of
wisdom poems in its thought, and the most elaborate in sonnet structure:
here, as always, the structure is an exact reflection of the thought.

The metrical scheme shows stanza structure throughout. The poem falls
into seven sections. In sections 1, 3, 4, 7, which contain