American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin ["I lock you in..."]

Terrance Hayes uses the term “American sonnet” to describe his poems in American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin as an homage both to the sonnet in America, as well as to poet Wanda Coleman, known for transforming the sonnet into a uniquely American form. Coleman specifically used the European form to articulate the Black American experience. She was also among the first poets to use the term “American Sonnet” as a distinct literary entity, and define it as an unrhymed poem of 14 lines. (Traditionally, the sonnet has a regular rhyme structure, but contemporary sonnets are often written in unrhymed verse). Hayes uses the term “American Sonnet” deliberately; he is not just writing any other sonnet but a poem in the tradition of Coleman. Thus, though Hayes is writing in the western form, he is also writing in the literary tradition of Black American poets.

The sonnet (Italian for “little song”) is a classical form dating to the late 13th century that has retained its popularity, in part because of its brief length and a structure that lends itself to twists and surprises. Originating in Italy, the sonnet was adopted by English poets from the 16th century onwards. The defining features of the English sonnet are 14 lines of rhymed verse organized in stanzas, written in iambic pentameter, and the presence of a volta or a twist towards the end, reversing or expanding the meaning of the preceding lines. Hayes’s sonnet is unrhymed but follows a metrical pattern off and on, as well as beat and half-rhymes. The line lengths are fairly uniform, and the enjambments are relatively smooth; thus, by contemporary standards, the sonnet is relatively controlled and rigid in structure.

Traditionally, sonnets were lyric love poems, often written as a series or a cycle. However, as early as the 17th century, poets like John Milton were using the sonnet form to express social and political themes. In contemporary times, many poets have utilized the structure of the sonnet to express rage and resistance against injustice and violence, proving the sonnet is a great vehicle for any powerful emotion. Hayes writes in the literary tradition of the political sonnet, yet as “I Lock You …” shows, the political is deeply personal. Hayes’s poem is a powerful statement against institutionalized racism and a raging, despairing paean to the question of how to be Black in America. It can even be read as a love poem, since it is a letter to the self, a self which can neither be contained, nor fully articulated, like a lover who does not return the love of the speaker. It is also the Black American’s love letter to their white counterpart, whom they can neither love nor hate. Thus, Hayes makes the important point that to be American is to live in a reality made of contradictions and oppositions. Because the sonnet is a poetic form that lends itself to expressing twists and contradictions, it becomes a perfect vehicle for Hayes’s project of expressing the Black American identity. Additionally, the sonnet’s confining structure – to which Hayes refers repeatedly in the poem – is great for expressing the poet’s rage. Rage, if unstructured and loose, either becomes violence or noise. The sonnet’s rigidity expresses the poet’s rage as a powerful song, all the more potent because it is contained.