“The Roman Baths of Nîmes” was written by Henri Cole as a way to express his desire to free himself from conformity and the social norms established by his environment. Furthermore, it can be seen as a way to end an internal battle by coming to terms with his true identity. A careful reading of the poem helps expose the true message that the poet attempts to convey to his reader. “The Roman Baths at Nîmes,” a sonnet, has a unique modified structure that resembles the main purpose of the poem. Originally, a sonnet was structured as “a strong opening statement of eight lines, followed by a resolution to the emotional or intellectual question of the first part of the poem” (Strand 56). The contemporary sonnet comes in two forms, the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean. Both have fourteen lines but differ in rhyme scheme. Cole combines elements of the original and Shakespearean sonnets to form a unique structure for his poetry. It uses a modified rhyme scheme of aabcbcdedefghh, which closely resembles the contemporary form of the Shakespearean sonnet (due to the final rhyme of the hh couplet) but not exactly. He incorporates the characteristics of the ancient sonnet by presenting his inner struggle in the first ten lines of the poem and in the final sentence, resolving the conflict.1 The author faces the struggle of coming to terms with his homosexuality, which parallels the “internal struggle” of the poem's form. The poem's opening line, "In the hall of mirrors no one speaks," (Cole 1) sets a dark tone through the author's use of imagery to create before the reader a silent dark corridor with mirrors. The other attribute describing the bathroom, "An ember burns before the hollowed cheeks", (2) ... middle of the paper ... ree of the conformities of the ancient world introducing the idea that people they should feel comfortable revealing their inner feelings and eradicating the fear of what others might think. This theme is reflected in the structure of his poem; his use of a modified form of the original sonnet and a non-rhyme scheme standard shows his desire to break free from social norms and establish new ones. In just fourteen lines, Henri Cole manages to reveal the hidden realities of what happens in bathrooms by masking the truths within the rhyming lines of his poem. Works Cited Cole, Henri. "The Roman Baths in Nîmes." The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. By Mark Strand and Eavan Boland. New York: Norton, 2001.69. Press. Strand, Mark and Eavan Boland. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New York: Norton, 2001. Print.