Moran is an instructor of English and American literature. In this essay, Moran explores the ways in which "Sonnet XXIX" dramatizes the workings of Elizabeth's mind as she thinks of her absent lover.

In his 1755 Preface to the English Dictionary, the lexicographer Samuel Johnson defends his decision not to alter the spellings of the words in his book to suit changes in use or pronunciation. "There is in constancy and stability a general and lasting advantage," he explains, "which will always overbalance the slow improvements of gradual correction." However, Johnson also acknowledges that all debates about spelling and pronunciation are, in a greater sense, almost trivial:

This recommendation of steadiness and uniformity
does not proceed from an opinion, that particular
combinations of letters have much influence on human
happiness; or that truth may not be successfully
taught by modes of spelling fanciful and erroneous:
I am not...