…to compose a sonnet by picking the rhyme scheme first and placing the rhyming words next and then filling in the sonnet from there, trying–as well as I can manage–to create something coherent and with some kind of consistent theme and message, and with a proper Volta, etc. A holiday of sorts is coming up at some point soon, perhaps I’ll make a present to myself of some extra work.
Tag Archives: Technique
Xerex, Coda: Here…
…will you find the first version as it had been penned originally so many decades ago. The dotted lines have been added to indicate whence the sonnets come:
O, my sweetest love,
Share thou with me
The sweet XerexWhich I do proclaim
As the nectar which
Returneth me toThee, my sweetest love.
Quiet my restless mind
With the still, sweetGrape which is the
Blood of lovers and
Of conquerers.
—————————
Such is the stuff
That would quiet my
Mind and my heartFor thee, and ease
Thy pain easily
With a pure flavor,And with little regret
From thyne Angels’ heart.
Remember thou, my loveThat even in this
Cruel
Earth there artThose elements which
Heal in their right
Proportions.
———————
Remember thou, my sweetest
Love, that many
Forms Are yieldedUp by the Fickle
Grape: The subjective
Grape yieldsUp poison and
Medicine for the
Soul.
———————–
As Baudelaire, my
Father, my twin,
My dearestPoet knew this drink was
Fine; so shall I
Proclaim: My sweetestLove, As my
Devoted, As my
Servant, As mySlave; bring thou
Me of the sweetest Xerex
Grape and IShall become returned
To that which
Thou most admireth.
————————–
But, that thou shouldst
Know: Once I have To
thine arms return’dThou shalt be my
Wine and my
crystal.
————————–
Thou shalt be
Mine Angel–superior
To all the grape isAble to be.
I shall thenceforth
Drink of thee,My love and I
Should never again want
For wine.
Much has in me been yielded up by that fine grape so many long years ago.
Regarding Xerex III and…
…Xerex in general. First a few notes regarding punctuation:
Sherry:
Anyone who speaks English, probably knows how to pronounce the word ‘Sherry.’ Continue reading
Regarding Xerex I…
…in particular and the Xerex sequence, in general: It has long been rhapsodized by many throughout history that wine most fine produces vision most fine. It might appear, at first blush, that such a thing cannot possibly be the case; after all, such a notion seems to fly in the face of reason; the intoxicant in wine is ethanol; and one ethanol molecule conforms and behaves very much like any other. Why then do dreamers, poets, writers, painters, musicians–artists of all stripes–continue to entertain this notion; or rather, why do they continue to have just such an experience, be inspired by their awe of it, and subsequently, feel compelled to recount it? Continue reading
Regarding Xerex, I did, indeed…
…let an older sonnet drop down onto September 23. I didn’t truly need to, but otherwise, I would have posted “today’s” entry at maybe 8:00 pm. I think I prefer it this way though, because now I may think about the subsequent elements of the sequence. I’m posting this entry in real time but the sonnet and its introduction will not have posted until September 24, 2012, shortly before 1:00 am.
All this for a drop Oloroso Sherry? I know, It seems like It’s a big to-do about such a subject; but some things are like that. They’re bigger than you at first thought they would be.
Follow-Up on Teaching Sonnets | Wanderings in the Labyrinth
Networking, Moderation, Lucasing, Creativity and other stories| David Emeron: Sonnets
To lucas or not. To moderate or not. To unrestrict or not.
This is a very strange topic. I would not have expected you to take note. Very true regarding creating/over editing. Still it is a rather strange and immediate medium we have here. In the 1800s, one might spend a year or so reworking and otherwise going over a book of poetry before even submitting it to a publisher (for even more re-edits.) I see this current process as a way to watch a work evolve–if anyone might be interested.
You may find this hard to believe, but I do not do that much lucasing–not nearly as much as you might guess. I am not obsessive with it. But when I find an error while reading something aloud (usually to Mrs. Emeron) I take advantage of my notice. There is something about a change in modalities that brings to light things one may have missed. For example, I can go over and over and over a new piece in the editing mode (black print on white) and then look at the published post–even just a glance (white print on black) and I will find things I will have missed before. Reading aloud has a similar effect. Even reading either to myself, or to Mrs. Emeron or to a colleague–all three of these are like different modalities and cause me to see things I did not see before.
I do change things when I notice them, or when the light goes on above my head and I exclaim “Eureka! Why did I not see this before!!”
I do feel a bit lonely for writing as I have been working on other things and using that hiatus to reformat what I already have written. It does please me to fix my excessive punctuation and give my works titles and streamline and fix my “sequences.” But very true, apart from some edits that I perform it is mostly digital grunt work. It is a way I can keep my hand in with what is now very limited time.
Still, I hear that appeals attorney Dr. Alan Dershowitz writes TWO sonnets every day and has for many years–even given his very full schedule. However, Google, Bing, &c. find no mention of it. When looking around to see if any are published, either in book form or web form somewhere, I find nothing, so perhaps the individual who told me this made it all up. One would think one might find at least a few hits on it or a mention of it in wikipedia, but I can find nothing.
If I were, for example, a marxist operative I might tell a poet something like this if I wanted to stop him from writing in the hopes that it would dishearten his attempts. Still I find it hard to believe that anyone, marxist or otherwise would notice, let alone care about, my four hits a day–which is what I receive if I am not actively engaged in the back and forth of the blogosphere.
In any case, my point is that one may write one sonnet every day–or two–no matter what one is doing. One might have to resort to a trick or two–speed writing techniques, I mean. I have, in fact, experimented with these. They do work. I can write a well-formed sonnet in under 10 minutes. But even though they read nicely and one might not be able to tell that they were that quickly written, still, there is no substitute for the type of sonnet that takes days of research and meditation and revision and experimentation to write. Both can be nice to read, but one can generally tell one from the other.
Partly, that is what the “Etudes” series is about: namely concentrating on types of writing and types of sound without worrying too much about what is being written. It is an interesting process because one sees in such cases what simply pops out of ones subconscious.
So in essence, I may spend 10 minutes when that is all I have and longer when I have more time to spend. Still, I admit I have been enjoying the re-editing process, most of which is cosmetic and functional rather than content modifying.
If I had my site hosted elsewhere, I could fix some things more quickly by writing shell scripts. I despair whenever I think that now that I have merged all three sites into one, all the internal links mentioned in posts or comments need to be fixed. There is no way I can do this easily. I simply fix deal links when I notice them, or if someone else brings them to my attention.
Ye Gods! But I do go on!! I think I should repost this as a regular entry. And in fact, I just did so.
David Emeron: Sonnets 
I am at a loss to explain why you eschew iambic pentameter in your form exercise, as you say, “even if the poem makes no sense.” Although “One thing at a time” might be a guess at your answer–which certainly would make a degree of sense. Still the iambic rhythm is most definitely a thing to get ones head around.
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