Sonnet 32 the love declaration should be considered significant as it characterizes the speaker's tone and content. However, the audience should "take with a pinch of salt" the seemingly modest self-denunciation and claims of inadequacy put forth by the speaker; due to the fact that they are simply a means by which the speaker emphasizes his affection for the subject. Subsequently, the content of Sonnet 32 is dependent upon the outlook of the speaker and the love he feels for the subject. Sonnet 32 is written in the English (Shakespearean) sonnet form. It consists of 14 lines: 3 quatrains followed by a
Curtal sonnet Curtal sonnet The curtal sonnet is a form invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and used in three of his poems. It is an eleven-line (or, more accurately, ten-and-a-half-line) sonnet, but rather than the first eleven lines of a standard sonnet it consists of precisely ¾ of the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet shrunk proportionally. The octave of a sonnet becomes a sestet and the sestet a quatrain plus an additional "tail piece." That is, the first eight lines of a sonnet are translated into the first six lines of a curtal sonnet and the last six lines of a sonnet