The Veil - Elizabeth Cobbold

This poem is a masterfully written Shakespearean sonnet in which the author sticks to the very traditional structure of this type of poem. However, she has a very unusual topic of the poem. Whereas most sonnets seem to use the first two quatrains in an effort to describe the many beautiful features of their lover in a blazon, Cobbold uses the first two quatrains to describe a concept rather than a person. Cobbold uses her quatrains to describe a metaphorical veil that covers her soul and heart. She has a blazon to describe something ephemeral and intangible with phrases such as "the look devoid of guile" and "tear of rapture springing to my eye." Cobbold wants her audience to see that even though she has used a traditional poem to describe the semi-traditional topic, what she feels is not traditional in any sense by using her blazon to describe something other than the purely physical.

Her metaphors and volta at the couplet further demonstrate the originality and uniqueness of Cobbold's poem. Whereas most sonnets seem to "shout their love from the rooftops" so to speak, Cobbold does the exact opposite, hoping to use the "friendly aid" of the very veil that so ails her. Instead of generally boisterous nature of these poems, Cobbold uses the poem to express a few minor feeling and then lock them away in an attempt to "guard her pride, honor, and fame." This couplet taken into account with the rest of the obscure and hidden nature of the poem seems to go against most other sonnets, especially the Shakespearean. The way in which Cobbold chooses solely to speak of her feelings indirectly and metaphorically further pushes the shy nature found in the couplet and again challenges the traditional poem.