What is the structure of Derozio's poem "To India My Native Land"?

"To India My Native Land" is structured as a
sonnet. It follows closely the English, also called
Shakespearean, sonnet form, but with some structural variations that are inspired by
Spenser. The structure goes against Petrarchan sonnet form as it follows a different
rhyme scheme and includes an end couplet, which Petrarchan sonnets are said to never
employ. It is interesting to note that Petrarch first developed the sonnet form of
poetry, yet English variations on and adaptations to his Italian form have come down
through the ages as the most famous: Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare both did
much to immortalize the English sonnet form.

Derozio's
sonnet meter is iambic pentameter (five measures {feet} of
da DA rhythm). The rhyme scheme varies the Enlish sonnet
scheme of abab cdcd efef gg by borrowing
concatenation (i.e., linking of quatrains) from Spenser and
creating a rhyme scheme of abab abcc dede cc, with
ab and cc linking concatenation between
quatrain 1 and 2 and between quatrain 2 and the couplet. Concatenation either
links the passages thematically or opposes
them thematically.

In the ab
ab concatenation, the theme is contrasted, opposed, as the
first quatrain speaks of India's glory while the second speaks of captivity under
colonization:

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And worshipped as a deity thou
wast.
Where is that glory, where that reverence
now?

Thy eagle pinion is chained down at
last,
And groveling in the lowly dust art
thou:

Similarly, in the
cc cc concatenation, Derozio also
contrasts, or opposes, the passages thematically. In the quatrain,
the poetic speaker laments that no minstrels sing of India's greatness and crown her
with wreaths of glory, while, in the couplet, the speaker pledges
himself and his reward (i.e., guerdon) to evoking one kind wish for
India:

Thy
minstrel hath no wreath to weave for thee
Save the sad story of thy
misery!

And let the guerdon of my labour be
My
fallen country! One kind wish from
thee!