Sonnet Sunday
January 4th 2009 18:20
In the process of figuring out how I want to structure this blog, I think I decided that I'll devote Sundays to sonnets: sharing my own, talking about sonnets written by others, and generally advocating their use. So here's a recent sonnet I wrote:
"Bright and Blind"
The trees had whispered songs of life supreme,
And light of stars our shackled souls made bold.
Our hearts against our doubts had swum upstream;
In arms of stone we sheltered from the cold.
That open place our hunger had fulfilled;
The need for secret banter unafraid.
In darkness deep our dusty wells refilled,
Our talk carefree, bereft of masquerade.
Yet when the sun arose, intent to sweep
The shadows off the silent land,
Our darkness deep the blazing light did reap
And placed instead the mask of day, a bland
Tableau of bright and blinded beasts; Our wells
Were drained to feed the day that chained our shells.
This is a traditional Shakespearean/Elizabethan sonnet, known to most as the sonnetiest sonnet form around. I adhered strictly to the rhyme scheme, number of lines, and the iambic pentameter (except for line 2 of the 3rd quatrain which is tetrameter). It's definitely formal in all aspects of its structure, but I personally think the aural devices (rhymes, alliteration, internal rhymes, meter etc) work fairly well in this poem. I'm still makng myself stick to the traditional form before I start messing with it and trying my own variations, which a lot of people do. The Shakespearean sonnet is by no means "the" sonnet form...it's a very flexible form with many variations, though the less poets use a consistent meter and rhyme scheme, the less they can claim to have written a sonnet. A lot of modern poets have reduced the definition of a sonnet to any poem that has 14 lines. A good example of a modern sonnet is Robert Frost's "Mowing." It has 14 lines, and each line falls somewhere in the 10-13 syllable range, which even though isn't consistent, it still gives the poem a nice feel. And it DOES have a rhyme scheme, though it's hard to discern.
I wrote "Bright and Blind" from my perspective as a lover of night-time. At night, I feel safe and comfortable to be my goofy self without fear of being seen or heard by other people. It's like people have a daytime and a nighttime persona; daylight is the time for work and frenetic structure, when we put on our robot masks and go along with the way things are. Night-time is a time of secrets and hiding darkness when the world is asleep and eyes are closed and ears are shut. It's my time of rejuvenation, which includes more than just sleep. It's the time when I come up with my best poetic thoughts and have my best conversations and have my most important epiphanies. This also explains my late nights and later mornings, haha.
I also think that the images and overall poem could have multiple meanings for different people that would be just as valid as mine. That's why I love poetry, it invites people to think for themselves. Also, good poetry inspires people to write their own poetry; a major reason I started writing poetry was that the poetry of greats like Frost, Pound, Dickinson, Bishop, and Plath (and of course Shakespeare and his contemporaries) inspired me to write for myself.
Well I'll be back tomorrow to start Metrical Monday: every Monday, I'll post a poem of mine or someone else's poem that utilizes structure to attain poetic power, and to talk about meter in general....and rant a little about life, since that's what I do. Have a great day!
P.S. I didn't write anything yesterday (Saturday) because I decided that Saturday will be my day off from blogging...I'll still be writing lots of stuff, just not on the internet. Cheers!
"Bright and Blind"
The trees had whispered songs of life supreme,
And light of stars our shackled souls made bold.
Our hearts against our doubts had swum upstream;
In arms of stone we sheltered from the cold.
That open place our hunger had fulfilled;
The need for secret banter unafraid.
In darkness deep our dusty wells refilled,
Yet when the sun arose, intent to sweep
The shadows off the silent land,
Our darkness deep the blazing light did reap
And placed instead the mask of day, a bland
Tableau of bright and blinded beasts; Our wells
Were drained to feed the day that chained our shells.
This is a traditional Shakespearean/Elizabethan sonnet, known to most as the sonnetiest sonnet form around. I adhered strictly to the rhyme scheme, number of lines, and the iambic pentameter (except for line 2 of the 3rd quatrain which is tetrameter). It's definitely formal in all aspects of its structure, but I personally think the aural devices (rhymes, alliteration, internal rhymes, meter etc) work fairly well in this poem. I'm still makng myself stick to the traditional form before I start messing with it and trying my own variations, which a lot of people do. The Shakespearean sonnet is by no means "the" sonnet form...it's a very flexible form with many variations, though the less poets use a consistent meter and rhyme scheme, the less they can claim to have written a sonnet. A lot of modern poets have reduced the definition of a sonnet to any poem that has 14 lines. A good example of a modern sonnet is Robert Frost's "Mowing." It has 14 lines, and each line falls somewhere in the 10-13 syllable range, which even though isn't consistent, it still gives the poem a nice feel. And it DOES have a rhyme scheme, though it's hard to discern.
I wrote "Bright and Blind" from my perspective as a lover of night-time. At night, I feel safe and comfortable to be my goofy self without fear of being seen or heard by other people. It's like people have a daytime and a nighttime persona; daylight is the time for work and frenetic structure, when we put on our robot masks and go along with the way things are. Night-time is a time of secrets and hiding darkness when the world is asleep and eyes are closed and ears are shut. It's my time of rejuvenation, which includes more than just sleep. It's the time when I come up with my best poetic thoughts and have my best conversations and have my most important epiphanies. This also explains my late nights and later mornings, haha.
I also think that the images and overall poem could have multiple meanings for different people that would be just as valid as mine. That's why I love poetry, it invites people to think for themselves. Also, good poetry inspires people to write their own poetry; a major reason I started writing poetry was that the poetry of greats like Frost, Pound, Dickinson, Bishop, and Plath (and of course Shakespeare and his contemporaries) inspired me to write for myself.
Well I'll be back tomorrow to start Metrical Monday: every Monday, I'll post a poem of mine or someone else's poem that utilizes structure to attain poetic power, and to talk about meter in general....and rant a little about life, since that's what I do. Have a great day!
P.S. I didn't write anything yesterday (Saturday) because I decided that Saturday will be my day off from blogging...I'll still be writing lots of stuff, just not on the internet. Cheers!
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