Sunday, October 08, 2006

Sonnet Sunday

Recently I boasted to Rob Mackenzie that I could write a sonnet in fifteen minutes. The notion afterwards appeared at some board whose provenance I don't recall, where people timed themselves on the task in public. My effort came in at somewhere around eleven minutes. But the one below, penned yesterday, took only five, likely because the form was the substance.

It's been said that form is an extension of substance. What then if a discussion of form is the substance? What if the form of the form determines the substance of the substance?

I think form should be second nature for any poet. Any poet who can't write a decent sonnet in half an hour should join a slam team. Ah, c'mon Craig Erick, you're a snob!

Damn straight, and we need more snobs in this poetry biz to filter out all the wannabes. Rhyme and meter are basic to the art; at the very least, an aspirant should be able to write decent blank verse. Sadly, many of my former students had difficulty with both. But I squeezed at least one sonnet out of every one of them, even if they whined and sweated blood, though there's one student out there, and you know who you are, who took a hiatus from the course but has yet to cough up a regular sonnet, likely why he's avoiding me.


Five Beats

Some prefer their sonnets regular.
Others like them straining against the bones
Of form. Like this. Or this. The amateur
Knows nothing but a pitter-pat of tones.
I like my sonnets rare, not medium.
I like to break the law. I like to tempt
My readers to a cliff. Tedium
Is all that ever comes from the attempt
Never to show your underwear in verse.
I moon you. I approve I do. I swoon
Melodramatically inside my hearse
Beneath the brittle, voyeuristic moon.
Do what you like—it’s only five beats.
Pound it like abalone or write like Keats.


Kenyon swam his heart out yesterday and has been up the stairs twice this morning without a splint. Kathleen and I plan to get the Sunday paper and drive down to a beautiful beach whose name I won't reveal. There Kenyon will frolic and the unluckiest fisherman in the world will lose tackle, bait, and lures to the greedy ocean with nary a fish to show for it. (I don't like to let fish get in the way of my fishing.)

At two kilobunnies.


Thine,

Craig Erick

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:45 AM PDT

    C.E.
    Wonderful to read Kenyon is doing better again. You must dread the day to surely come.
    Happy fishing

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9:35 AM PDT

    AND when the dreaded day arrives, make sure there is a furry replacment. FURRBODIES SOOTHES THE SOUL.

    Meanwhile, have a happy day !!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10:56 AM PDT

    Hi CE:

    Are variations allowed?

    Norm

    Some prefer their sonnets regular.
    Others like them straining at the bit
    Of form. Like this. Or this. The amateur
    qua metronomic tapping little git.
    I like my sonnets raw; rare, not medium.
    I like to break the law. I like to tempt
    My readers to a precipice. Tedium
    Is all that ever comes from the attemptNever to show your underwear in verse.
    I moon you. I approve I do. I swoon
    Melodramatically inside my hearse
    Beneath the brittle, voyeuristic moon.
    Do what you like—it’s only five beats.
    Pound it like abalone or write like Keats.


    Hi CE:

    Are variations allowed?

    Norm

    .

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks, Anon. Norm, variations are only allowed if you are various, you qua metronomic tapping little git. I learned that "git" word from Lennon's "I'm So Tired." Wonderful word for rhyme, though it sticks out like a sore Brit.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Craig Erick


    This is a nice sonnet, but every line doesn’t tap out five beats as you have stated – I can see five feet at a push and a shove near to the precipice.

    L5, for instance has six beats. I don’t think you need the semi-colon. You could dispense with the word “raw” to regularize but I am a regular person and regular is VERY boring.

    I LIKE my SONNets RAW; RARE, not MEdiUM.

    I LIKE my SONNets RAW, not MediUM

    Regards,
    Coral

    ReplyDelete
  6. Craig Erick,

    OOps - I meant to say the semi-colon could be replaced with a comma.

    Regards,
    Coral

    ReplyDelete
  7. You're right, of course, Coral, and I changed the poem to reflect your point--but I'm not sure I should. Part of the fun of messing with form is forcing the reader to read "medium" and "tedium" as one stressed beat each. I can get away with it, but even if I don't, it calls attention to the form I'm trying to stretch.

    ReplyDelete
  8. CE,

    Please don't change anything on my account. I like to know about the poet's original metrical intent. But nobody ever really obliges with a mechanical scansion. There are so many different ways to read many poems. Part of the fun is sometimes expunged as one attempts to analyze too deeply; the spots wear off the ladybug to reveal nothing more than a bug.

    Thanks for your kind wishes earlier. I think you can guess what is happening by my current mood. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

    Regards,
    Coral

    ReplyDelete

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