The Monday Mission this week was to write a poem. I suggested this to Painted Maypole who hosts the Missions. The suggestion may have been a big mistake. I decided to try a sonnet and I got the first two quatrains but the third is, I think, both limping and limp. Oh well. It's a lot of fun to try this stuff, even if your best effort is composed in your head while navigating snowy roads and fades from memory before you can write it down.
Festival
The winter world is dark, serene and cold.
Soft flakes of snow form clinging blankets, white
on tree and bush that sleeping birds enfold.
A silent owl drifts ghostlike through the night.
The quiet night is bathed in blue star shine,
But at the house the windows gleam with gold,
From lamp and fire and candle. Food and wine,
music and laughter, all the home can hold.
Crystal sparkles on a red draped table,
Roasting turkey scents the lambent air,
The girl child's dressed in velvet, gold and sable.
Lamplight gilds her mother's auburn hair.
A festival of light and warmth and fun.
A solstice party marks the turning sun.
I think it's lovely.
ReplyDeleteThat was beautiful. The third quatrain was perfect.
ReplyDeleteI half expected you to write about a prorogue. ;)
That third quatrain's problem is due to having some non-iambic lines and also some lines of only 9 syllables, not the required 10. The imagery in there is lovely, though, and the word choice is very nice. My creative writing students detest the sonnet, and I give them a sheet full of little tricks (like never start or end a line with an -ing word.) I love to write them; the restriction ends up being the most liberating thing for me.
ReplyDeletehey, Nance, thanks a lot. I knew the 'turkey' line had a trochee start, but I couldn't bear to give it up. And then I figured I had better echo it.
ReplyDeleteHey, Shakespeare used 'ing' word starts. Yeah, but I am sure not Shakespeare.
I'ld love to see your sonnet tricks sheet, truly. I too find that the form is liberating. When I don't run out of time.
Sage, I would have, but what rhymes with'prorogue' that would not fry Blogger.
Thanks, Maypole! I love Mondays. You are a marvel to keep doing them.
Spondee? Uh. Long, long time since I taught this stuff.
ReplyDeleteOh, Mary. I love it! And I quite liked the turkey trochees. Iambs be damned! (That looks like an L, but it's a capital i. I don't have it out for Lambs. Not that I really have it out for iambs, either, for that matter.)
ReplyDeleteWe must be on the same wavelength, because I was also planning to write a sonnet for this. I hadn't yet seen one done for a blog post! And I've never tried one myself. Mine was going to be very silly though. Possibly about needing to clean out my refrigerator. As it turns out, I had virtually no time at all for blogging, either posting or commenting, as my mother was visiting. (It was a lovely visit, but my mother didn't quite understand my need to rush to my laptop at all hours of the day and night.)
No, it was good! I long ago stopped being able to make good poetry that rhymes, so I admire anyone who can!
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