From: sstover@sumax.seattleu.edu (   Kate   )
Newsgroups: rec.arts.poems
Subject: Re: Advice:  A Love Sonnet
Date: 12 Nov 92 08:47:31 GMT
Organization: Seattle University

In article <331@uiunix.ui.org> donz@ui.org (Don Zirilli) writes:
>Take Heed, RAP!!!!
>
>I have seen on this group many a sonnet that left me shuddering.  To my
>eyes they seemed as infants malformed and I wept with blistering sorrow and
>disgust.  But this...finally, we have a master at work!
>
>My fellows, this sonnet scans!!!  Iambic pentameter!  For those of you who
>don't know what iambic pentameter is, STOP WRITING SONNETS IMMEDIATELY.
>
>And not just some wimpy Shakespearean Sonnet, either.  A Petrarchan!
>O Frabjous Day!  Calloo Callay! [check spelling]
>
>Sir Woolley, my sincerest admiration for you!
>

O Posthumous,

Though no longer the 'Maven o'Mirth' (all good things gradually grind to a
halt) I am still the same incarnation, and would not wish to *cross* you,
but I wish to offer a slightly different praise for Fr. Woolley.  I too
lit up at the very first line, but because of the quality of the writing. 
Please note one or two places, however, where it doesn't scan.  In this
department, I think Sharon Hopkins may have him beat.  I would be
hard-pressed to say whose sonnets I enjoy more...

>>      are you, anyway?  Sure she's cute, but use
         -   '   ' - -     '    -      '    -   '
or alternately
         '   '   ' - - (I prefer to read it with the spondee at the
                        beginning, myself)

>>      someone else.  Remember the Golden Rule:
         '   -   '      - '  -   -   '  -   '    
>>      Get back on the track, Jack.  You're gonna lose
         -   '   -   -    '     '       -     '  -  '

I point these out not to be an annoying English major but because I think
they demonstrate true mastery of the form.  Each time the iambic meter of
the pentameter is altered, it produces a specific effect, particularly the
spondees.  They lend force to the voice of the poem.  As I learned
sonnet-writing, this is not only acceptable but a sign of understanding
the form.  I myself can write in rhyming iambic pentameter almost
reflexively, but most of what is produced as a result is crap :).  Even
Shakespeare deviated from his rhythm.  I would particularly agree that the
Petrarchan sonnet is the superior form :) though I consider Shakespeare
the superior writer...

And my commendations, Fr. Woolley.  I hope we hear much more from your
wise keyboard.
>>-- 
>>Fr. John Woolley (jww@evolving.com); vastly enthusiastic about Augustine,
>>Austen, babies, Bach, backgammon, baseball, beer, the Bible, Botticelli, Burke,
>>Chesterton, Dante, Dixieland, hardboiled, Hitchcock, Dr Johnson, Latin, Mozart,
>>Shakespeare/de Vere, St Teresa, Tolkien, Trollope, Fats Waller, and Washington
>>
>-- 
>nobody/not even the rain/              	/	   /      /  /    
> /   /   /     /   /   / /     /       /    /    // /    /  /         /    
>/     / / /   /   /     /   / /    / /   / / /  /  /   /      /      /
>   / /   /   /	/	 / /      //    /   / /     / /      / / / 
--
       Sheryl Stover  %  If you ask me what I have come to do in the world,
  & Hemingway & Clio  %  I who am an artist, I will reply: "I am here to
sstover@seattleu.edu  %  live aloud."                    -Emile Zola