Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Sonnet anniversary 2012

It's been a long time since I wrote a sonnet - not since last November. But I've traditionally had a sonnet review every year on the anniversary of my first sonnet and so...

I guess my favorite of this past year of sonnets is "Darling, the world is composed." I like the extended water metaphor - always a good choice for me, my first sonnet had one - and the 8-line long sentence that begins the sonnet:
Darling, the world is composed of endless
Fleeting phenomena in the ever-
Rushing stream of time where all are helpless
To stay howsoever we endeavor
The course of desire winding through veins
And all of the channels of perceivers
Each little vessel that haplessly strains
In passionate confluence, conceivers
Of infinities of concupiscence.
Cerulean eyes, adorable face
Breathing hard drowning in every sweet sense,
Here my love is senamensing's own place.
Underground but never ceasing to be
There flows your most ardent tributary.
I especially like the phrase "conceivers of infinities of concupiscence" - that's a very Schopenhauerian concept. And in fact the first fifteen words in the sonnet (save "Darling") I put into the mouth of the Schopenhauer character in my JULIA & BUDDY. It also includes the Indian word that I'm trying to turn into an English-language word, senamensing.

I talk about the therapeutic aspects of the sonnets in this one and again in Unrequited Love is Not Required.

I expect that since the unrequited love that was the primary inspiration for my sonnets has faded, I won't be writing many more - or any more. In any case, what Pushkin said:
Whom to love, whom to believe in,
On whom alone shall we depend?
Who will fit their speech and action,
To our measure, in the end?
Who will refrain from slander,
Who support us when we wander,
Be amused by our vices;
Who is never bored by us?
Never pursue a phantom,
Or waste your efforts on the air
Love yourself, your only care,
Estimable Reader: come,
No more deserving lover,
Or more fitting, you’ll discover.

Eugene Onegin - Alexander Pushkin