Andrew, Martin -- here's an upside-downer of mine, which you may or may not
feel is outside the traditional frame. The change of person between the two
sonnets in the pair is because they're from my book about Shostakovich, and
are meant to illustrate the fact that he hated talking about himself but
would talk about the sufferings of others, and it was then up to the
listener to add the 'reflection'. The line "a man without a memory's a dead
man" is pretty much a quotation from the composer, according to Volkov.
Mirror Fugue
The truly-dead are those that are forgot,
and a man without a memory’s a dead man.
He will tell you everything he can.
Friends, relatives, acquaintances, the never-met --
their fates still bruise him. Listen:
the slow drips of tears, of heartbreak,
freeze and refreeze. His grief is glazed
as Leningrad’s winter waterways
deepen, deepen by reflection
till the ice is far too thick to crack.
He sees their faces through his frozen tears
and finds himself mirrored with them.
You want him to sing under this ice?
today he has only the one theme.
*
Today I have only one theme.
You want me to sing under this ice
and find myself, mirrored with them?
I see their faces through my frozen tears
(this ice which is far too thick to crack)
deepened, deepened by reflection,
as Leningrad’s winter waterways
freeze and refreeze. My grief is glazed
in the slow drip of tears, of heartbreak.
Their fates bruise me still. Listen,
friends, relatives, acquaintances, the never-met,
I will tell you everything I can,
for a man without a memory’s a dead man.
Truly, the dead are those that are forgot.
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "andrew burke" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: Sonnets (Re: Sonnet for the Criminally Insane )
Here's a recent one, Martin, which is further outside the traditional frame:
*A**n Upside-down Sonnet*
* *
* *
'I'll give you to the next passing Chinaman',
my mother would say.
It was the Fifties and such things were said
without malice
for there were few passing Chinamen
in our home town.
Fifty six years later I am
an Australian man passing
and Chinese kids look up at me
without prejudice—a living
breathing specimen
of Western decadence,
the Coca-Cola culture come
flying over their wall.
(As far as I know, Dorothy Hewett first did the upside down bit, but as I
was in the southern hemisphere, I thought upside down was appropriate ...)
On 14/10/2007, Martin Dolan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> The answer varies, I think, depending on whether you take the
> Shakespearian or the Petrarchan as your template.
>
> For me, the Shakespearian is didactic, with that last couplet (or two
> lines if we're not using rhyme) thumping out the intended point, and
> less dependent on the volta. The Petrarchan, though, seems constructed
> around that change between the octave and the sestet and what you
> balance between the two.
>
> I've written the latter unrhymed and they still seem sonnet-like to me.
> I've relaxed the metre until it disappears and it feels like a sonnet.
> That basic eight/six line division seems to be the key.
>
> Don't know about Shakespearian - never been able to do them successfully.
>
> Martin
>
> Joanna Boulter wrote:
> > Yes I know, the exception rather than the rule, and a matter for
> > comment. It might be interesting to look at a few of them, and see
> > what actually does make them sonnets rather than thirteen-line poems.
> > *If we can find enough examples that we can agree on as being true
> > examples.
> >
> > But to my mind, a sonnet is more than just the number of its lines,
> > and I suspect that this is what Kasper's feeling here, possibly Janet
> > too. I mean, not all four-legged animals are dogs -- there are
> > differentials that mark them out instantly from cats. Nor do the
> > tailless Manx cat and the boxer dog with the docked tail cloud the
> > issue there.
> >
> > I suspect it's something to do with the way they move and behave, but
> > would be interested to see what others think.
> >
> > joanna
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- From: "andrew burke" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 12:21 PM
> > Subject: Re: Sonnets (Re: Sonnet for the Criminally Insane )
> >
> >
> >> There have been 13 line sonnets in history, y'know ...
> >>
> >> Andrew
> >>
> >>
> >> On 14/10/2007, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Good questions, Janet, especially that last para.
> >>>
> >>> I have a habit of writing short poems which turn out to be 13-liners.
> A
> >>> surprising number of people say "Why don't you add another line, and
> >>> then
> >>> it'll be a sonnet?" My answer is usually "It doesn't want to be one
> >>> -- and
> >>> yes, I did ask it!" However, the real reason I don't is more likely
> >>> that
> >>> I've said what I need to say in 13 lines and can see no point in
> >>> adding a
> >>> 14th for the sake of it.
> >>>
> >>> Having said that, though, I can and do write sonnets.
> >>>
> >>> joanna
> >>>
> >>> ----- Original Message -----
> >>> From: "Janet Jackson" <[log in to unmask]>
> >>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> >>> Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 2:52 AM
> >>> Subject: Sonnets (Re: Sonnet for the Criminally Insane )
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> >> Mine are non-metrical, non-rhyming (for the most part)
> >>> >> sonnets. The sonnet's a broad, deep river with interesting
> >>> >> eddies at its margins.
> >>> >
> >>> > OK, Hal, please would you educate us?
> >>> > What makes a poem a sonnet, and not just a 14-line poem?
> >>> > That it presents an opinion?
> >>> > That the lines are longish and all about the same length?
> >>> > That if you really work at it you read it with five stresses per
> >>> line?
> >>> >
> >>> > I have a book somewhere that claims sonnets should have
> >>> > a "volta", a twist at about line 9, but I don't see that
> >>> > in this one.
> >>> >
> >>> > I suspect Kasper is more interested in why you bother labelling
> >>> > it a sonnet, what your purpose is in doing that.
> >>> >
> >>> > Janet
> >>> >
> >>>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> > Janet Jackson <[log in to unmask]>
> >>> > www.myspace.com/poetjj
> >>> > www.proximity.webhop.net
> >>> >
> >>> > Allegedly, some kid poet came over to Robert Frost at some
> >>> gathering > and
> >>> > introduced himself by saying "I'm a poet." Frost replied "That's a
> >>> > praise word. I'd wait 'til someone else called me that."
> >>> >
> >>>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Andrew
> >> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> >> http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits
> >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
> >>
> >
>
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
