Hearting the Love Sonnet

 

Haiku has been my go-to form of poetry for so long, I’ve seldom given thought to the lasting value and versatility of the sonnet. Then recently, a poet-friend said she planned to focus on studying and writing sonnets, which turned my attention to the subject too. (Thank you, April.)

Shakespeare immediately comes to mind, of course, and also John Milton, John Donne, George Herbert, and numerous other poets who wrote in a variety of poetic forms but with a romantic aside to sonnets. To provide you with some study-worthy examples of this timeless form, most often written in iambic pentameter, I’ve selected sonnets where love poems between two people have elevated into love poems to the Lord.

 

Leave Me, O Love, Which Reachest but to Dust

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

 

Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust,

And thou my mind aspire to higher things:

Grow rich in that which never taketh rust:

Whatever fades, but fading pleasure brings.

 

Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might,

To that sweet yoke, where lasting freedoms be:

Which breaks the clouds and opens forth the light,

That doth both shine and give us sight to see.

 

O take fast hold, let that light be thy guide,

In this small course which birth draws out to death,

And think how evil becometh him to slide,

Who seeketh heaven, and comes of heavenly breath.

Then farewell world, thy uttermost I see,

Eternal Love, maintain thy life in me.

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Easter

by Edmund Spencer (1552-1599)

 

Most glorious Lord of Life, that on this day 

Didst make Thy triumph over death and sin;

And having harrowed hell didst bring away

Captivity thence captive us to win:

This joyous day dear Lord with joy begin;

And grant that we for whom thou didst die 

Being with Thy dear blood clean washed from sin 

May live forever in felicity!

 

And that Thy love we weighing worthily 

May likewise love Thee for the same again;

And for Thy sake that all like deare didst buy 

With love may one another entertain.

So let us love, dear Love, like as we ought. 

Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

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Earth has not anything to show more fair

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

 

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty:

This City now doth like a garment wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still!

..

 

God's Grandeur

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1841-1889)

 

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

    And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

 

And for all this, nature is never spent;

    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

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As you can see, each sonnet includes the standard 14 lines with a volta or turning point, usually on the eighth line or the twelfth.  

For additional discussions on the form, visit this previous post. Also, you’ll find below a contemporary (as in, written last week) example of a sonnet in tetrameter with four beats per line instead of five and four rhyming sounds (a personal challenge since I’m a rhyming-minimalist.)

 

Sonnet Awakened at 3 a.m.

Mary Harwell Sayler  

 

If independence boasts its reward,

when will we dare depend on the Lord?

And if God’s Word calls for accord,

why do we wield it like a sword?

 

Let us, as One, world’s ways despise,

but see each person as God’s prize

and look for Love through Spirit eyes.

Such love will heal us and surprise.

 

Begone, you selfish, sightless core!

If need be, grope for Jesus’ door.

Unlatch your tethered thoughts. Explore

the words of Christ Whom you adore.

 

God’s Own Spirit bids us, “Come!

Live Christ’s Love. Be Whole. Be One.

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Ballads: The Story Poem Form

Recently a poet asked if I could identify the form she had used in writing a story poem. I wasn’t sure! A first draft with no pattern in mind is not likely to plink onto a page and come out true to form, but that’s okay. That’s even to be expected because traditional poetry usually results, not from writing in form, but from revising lines to fit a particular pattern.

Ideally that form will shape up what’s there. So, the more forms or poetry patterns you become acquainted with, the more options you’ll have as you revise. (Like, why try to reinvent countless centuries of pattern choices?)

The story poem I just mentioned had end-line rhymes and roughly four beats per line. The poet had then divided those lines into groups of four, making her narrative poem a four-beat poem (accentual verse) set in quatrains (four lines per verse.)

Is that a problem? No! That intuitive pattern has frequently been employed by poets, who enjoy playing with words, images, and rhythm. Most often, the resulting quatrains have four beats per line, although some have three or five. But this poem had something more than a regular beat and specific line-breaks. It had story.

When we think of narrative or story poems, book-length epic poetry such as Beowolf might come to mind. However, far shorter narratives can introduce heroes, legends, Bible stories, or personal tales with which readers can relate.

With a little tweaking, quatrains with a 4/4/4/4- beat can be revised to fit a ballad form aka literary ballad aka folk ballad aka hymn ballad, each of which often has an alternating beat of 4/3/4/3 for each quatrain.

If you’d like to know more about the ballad or other form, type the one you want in the Search box on this page. For instance, searching for the word “ballad” should bring up the previous post “Writing a Ballad.”

For more in-depth discussions and examples of poetry forms (and free verse tips too), consider A Poet's Guide to Writing Poetry, based on my former home study course Or, make learning easy and lively for yourself, your classroom, and/or creative kids of any age with The ABC's of Poetry: A Dictionary for Children and for Fun in hardback. 

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019, poet-writer 

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Writing a ghazal

GHAZAL (OR GHASEL):

No matter how you spell it, the ghazal (often pronounced ghuzzle) brings an interesting pattern of rhyme and repetition in its traditional form of poetry from seventh century Arabia.

Set in five to twelve couplets, the opening pair establishes a refrain that recurs throughout the poem. This echoing sound may come by repeating syllables or a phrase as shown in the poem below.

Besides the repetition of the phrase, "new moon rising,” each couplet contains either a slant rhyme or a true rhyme with sounds, such as ear/ ir/ eer/ ier, about mid-way in the line. The first couplet establishes a refrain of repeated word(s) and rhymes in both lines, then places them in the second line for the remainder of the poem.

Often, a ghazal hinges on thoughts that come in free association of a repeated word or phrase. Otherwise, little, if any, connection of thought exists from one phrase to the next.

Finally, the last couplet ties the poet's name into the refrain as in the example shown where the words, Mary, hare, well, sailor sign my "autograph" to the poem.

Reflecting On The Moon

I could not hear the new moon, rising –
white fist of fear, the new moon rising.

Oh, come! Let's make a man of snow.
Its face will appear like a new moon rising.

On the Chesapeake Bay, hound dogs bay
any time of year at the new moon rising.

Animal-vegetable-mineral-person-
place-thing-mir-or the new moon rising.

The Law carves a heart of pumpkin stone.
Jack-O-Lanterns jeer at the new moon rising.

The Witch of Endor has no broom
nor king to steer the new moon rising.

Hark! Whose star is this, upon
a midnight clear and new moon rising?

Unclean! Unclean! Life touches death
beside the bier – anew! Moon rising....

Welcome wagon, sailor, hare. By
Mary's well draw near the new moon rising.

by Mary Harwell Sayler from the e-book Christian Poet' Guide to Writing Poetry based on the poetry correspondence course Mary wrote and used for years with other poets and poetry students

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Christian Poet's Guide to Writing Poetry, e-book on Kindle



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Resources for poets and writers

Online Poetry and Writing Resources


ABC's of Poetry: A Dictionary for Children and for Fun covers poetry forms and terminology, from A to Z. Recommended for classrooms and individual poets of all ages, this hardback offers a lively way to learn with examples of each entry from the author, other contemporary poets, and classical works too.

A Poet’s Guide to Writing Poetry is the e-book version of the poetry course I wrote and used for years with poets from diverse age groups, backgrounds, and levels of skill. The large print paperback can also be found on Amazon.

B-rhymes give you word pairs that almost rhyme, but not quite.

Blogging site provides helpful guides for all aspects of developing a successful, well-trafficked blog.

Dictionary search and reverse dictionary site on OneLook.com helps you search for phrases that begin with key words of interest.

English Grammar website gives you grammar rules, online exercises, and writing tips. Similar sites can be found, but I found this one to be especially clear and easy to navigate.

New Pages site guides you to literary markets to read, study, and send your batch of poems.

Open Culture has over 1,000 free online courses, including literature.

Poetry 180, sponsored by the Library of Congress, offers a poem for each day of the school year but to be read anytime too.

Poetry and Literature page, also sponsored by the Library of Congress, gives histories of poetry, interviews with poets, archives of poetry, upcoming events, Poet Laureate bio's, and more.

Project Gutenberg gives the full texts of over 60,000 classical books, including poetry, at no charge.

Rhyme Zone helps you find definitions of words as well as true rhymes, slant rhymes, and synonyms.

Writing Resources on my blog include hotlinks and posts on WordPress and my website offer ideas and options too. 


©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler, poet-writer of over 2,000 short manuscripts and three dozen books in all genres

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