Early this afternoon…

…I began feeling a bit under the weather.  And in a few minutes, I will settle down into my bed with my laptop and something fizzy to soothe my throat, and write the answer to Will Shakespeare’s sonnet II; which prompt, I have already posted.  I do like doing these; however, now I have two sequences that are essentially notes to myself.  I’m not sure how to characterise that.

Also: I, of late, have been thinking I should number all my sonnets.  I am not sure the numbering system I should use, however.  There are the short sequences and there should be some method for making them sequential whether or not I add to them later or not.  Still… that type of enumeration, in and of itself, might be confusing as well.  Perhaps I should just use plain sequential numbers and keep things in date order.  That, or I could use two different systems depending on what type of cataloguing I, or another reader, might like to do.

Kirkpatrick” type numbers and perhaps “Shorto” (rather than “Longo“) numbers.  This is a reference to Domenico Scarlatti, whose sonatas have three different numbering systems, mostly rather confusing, with Kirkpatrick being the most used–and which puts Scarlatti’s sonatas in sequential order by date as well as can be done.

Regarding my sonnets, these ‘K’ numbers would be chronological simply as: K1, K2, K3, &c.

The ‘S’ numbers would be Chronological as S1, S2, S3, &c; except where sequences are involved, I would then, perhaps, note the place where sonnet number one of a sequence first appears (whether it is out of order or not) and then, for example:

If S2 marks the first of a sequence, it will be numbered S2.1, and the next in the sequence would be S2.2, S2.3, &c, (all the way up to S2.154 or more if necessary!)  These would not indicate very well how many sonnets in total there might be, but the ‘K’ numbers would be for that purpose.

I might even try ‘P’ numbers also, for “Petrucci,” or whatever type of pasta the third system for classifying Scarlatti’s sonatas is named; which might group all sonnets by subject, perhaps in a similar way as the ‘S’ numbers.  Very well… I looked it up, it is, in fact, “Pestelli.” Sounds delicious, perhaps tossed with seafood and Alfredo sauce.  This is making me hungry.  “Feed a cold,” do they say, after all.

This would make the mnemonic for these three systems fairly straight forward.  If ‘K’ numbers are simple enumerators, and ‘S’ numbers are sequence based, and ‘P’ numbers are subject related; then we might say “Count, Sequence, Passion,” which would help one remember which is which:  K for count (or Kount), ‘S’ for sequence, and ‘P’ for passion (hence subject).

I suppose I could also use the unique post id that wordpress provides.  However, this, I have found does not exist on every screen wherein one might want or need it.

I could, of course, leave such enumeration to posterity, but I find myself needing and wanting such numbers now, for a variety of reasons.

Phone/PDA writing.

Although I do have some considerable experience writing prose on my now seldom used “wince” PDA with a collapsible keyboard. And, since my recalcitrant Samsung Galaxy seems to be resistant to bluetooth keyboards–I have even been inside it via a root terminal app, and still cannot “make it go”–I have, of late, tried “thumbing.”  Because I do not have full command of the screen due to the virtual keypad,  I felt it might be a bit of a chore, at least for the first few attempts, to try something beyond a Shakespearian.  So Dec. 3rd, and Dec 6th. are both done in the car while waiting for this or that, or eating a Big Mac.  I had little confidence at first, but I am good with my fingers.  So even though I may be an old dog; I usually have little trouble learning new tricks.

I believe I might try a harder one next time (longer, with more perpetual rhymes;) because for the second entry (on the 6th) I used the WordPress app (for Android) on my Galaxy.  And I even had some reference material up on Firefox for android, which is shaping up to work fairly well.  I was quite happy to have it finally released fully functional because I am able to sync my settings and whatever addons may be synced  cross-platform.

In any case, it was not as annoying as I first thought it would be, which gives me confidence to try something more involved on my phone.  Still I should like to get a full sized keyboard working with it, as I am much faster with all 10 of my fingers than I am with my thumbs alone–though this is not the case with everyone.  I am lucky enough to have learned how to touch-type properly long ago, and as I also may have posted somewhere, I had no idea when I learned this skill how important it would be in the years to come.

So, the “bottom line,” as it were:  Thumbing is workable.  I am already using an app which allows me to make the system fonts bigger or smaller, which comes in handy for a great many things.  It makes things easier to read, when I don’t have my reading glasses on, naturally; but it also makes it easier to see more in the tiny text-box on the screen when one is typing/thumbing with the virtual keyboard.  So when I have a strong enough pair of glasses on, I can make the default text entry font quite small and see more than four lines at once.   I found I’m getting better at moving the cursor around using Android’s rather wonky interface.  I had little trouble fixing spelling, punctuation, missing words, wrong words, mispelled words, etc.

Part XII: (lyrical couplets)

This, the most familiar form of rhyme
Is used in song and verse time after time

This the sixth edition came about
The gateway to familiarise throughout
Continue reading

Part 11: (Shakespearean blankverse)

Divinely “stepping rhythm:” blankverse–thou,
Most courtly poetess, to me once wrote–
To promenade as flawlessly anon.
Continue reading

Sonnet XVIII: A Winter’s Day

I shan’t thee to a summer’s day compare;
Thou lov’st not temp’rate climes I yet disdain.
Cold shake thy searing winds I find as fair:
For, over most creation, cold doth reign.

Yet burn thou bright and hot as Heaven’s eye;
And cold and dark, as dark is Neptune’s Lair;
And nary cold may pale nor fade to die
Thy nature’s spark so hidden unaware.

So is this edge infinity for me:
And shalt thou–changeless ’til the edge of time,
Whilst draw my breath, and know mine eyes foresee–
Remain, ’til death shall take me, in thy prime.

Then fades’ thy mem’ry’s pain; for few men see
Such life these lines contain, these give to thee.

David Emeron

This sonnet is part of a short, or
possibly at some point, very long
sequence; click here to read it all:

Sonnet XVIII: (William Shakespeare)

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet VI: Ten Thousand Treasures

Ere winter’s sweetest place distils to night,
Posterity could speak ten thousand times,
Make not forbidden, those that willing fight;
Deface thy ragged killer for its crimes!

Should one refigure life, if not some loan,
Too much the sum in use: art thou contrite?
Depart with usury and pay to own,
And let thy summer’s beauty be thy right.

Another treasure then if make thine heir,
Not e’er time’s hand made e’er thy leaving known;
And treasure done thyself, or bred, were fair,
All happier of thee than thee outshone.

What vial of Death bewitching dreams prepare?
Self-conquest warms thee, vile Death to dare!

This sonnet is part of a short, or
possibly at some point, very long
sequence; click here to read it all: