# Sombre Sonnet explained — The Book of Jade

> Chapter companion for The Book of Jade by David Park Barnitz.

## What happens

The speaker declares a profound love for all things somber, autumnal, and death-tinged, and extends this affection to a beloved whose eyes hold the solemnity of both life and death.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and Decay

The poem is saturated with imagery of death, funereal tones, and a 'solemn savor of death'.

### Ennui and Existential Dread

The speaker's attraction to somber, mournful, and desolate things reflects a deep existential weariness.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who loves somber and deathly things.

### Death

The savor of death clings to the things the speaker loves.

## Key lines

> I love all sombre and autumnal things, Regal and mournful and funereal, Things strange and curious and majestical, Whereto a solemn savor of death clings

I am drawn to everything dark, melancholy, and deathlike—things that are majestic and strange, touched by the gravity of mortality.

_Opening declaration of the speaker's aesthetic and emotional affinity for death-tinged beauty._

> Therefore I love thee more than aught that dies, Within whose subtile beauty slumbereth The twain solemnity of life and death

Thus I love you more than any mortal thing, because your delicate beauty holds the deep seriousness of both life and death.

_The speaker elevates the beloved above all else for embodying the duality of existence._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se/chapters/part-i-sombre-sonnet
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se/chapters