Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line
O for a muse of fire, a sack of dough,
Or both! O promissory notes of woe!
One time in Santa Fe N.M.
Ol' Winfield Townley Scott and I ... But whoa.
One can exert oneself, ff ,
Or architect a heaven like Rimbaud,
Or if that seems, how shall I say, de trop ,
One can at least write sonnets, a propos
Of nothing save the do-re-mi-fa-sol
Of poetry itself. Is not the row
Of perfect rhymes, the terminal bon mot,
Obeisance enough to the Great O?
"Observe," said Chairman Mao to Premier Chou,
"On voyage à Parnasse pour prendre les eaux.
On voyage comme poisson, incog."
Commentary
Notes
N.M.: New Mexico
ff: fortissimo (musical term, 'very loud')
de trop: too much
bon mot: clever saying
French sentences:
they travel to Parnassus[1] to take the waters,
they travel as fish
[1] Name of a mountain in central Greece, anciently sacred to Apollo and
the Muses; hence used allusively in reference to literature, esp.
poetry. -- OED
Rhyme scheme: aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Today’s poem is not so much poetry as verse. However, it is a wonderfully ingenious piece of verse, and I for one am an unabashed fan of ingenuity. As an added bonus, it’s not only a poem about poetry (see previous theme <g>) but a poem about itself. The latter, incidentally, is a not-too-unusual device in poems whose main focus is their form - inverting the scheme of things somewhat, the content highlights and reinforces the form, explicitly pointing out its various features. On the down side, it’s a slightly overused technique, and one that is liable to topple over the fine line between ‘crafted’ and ‘contrived’ - nonetheless, when well done it can, and has, produced some delightful poems.
Biography
George Starbuck 1931 - 1996
There’s not much about Starbuck online - for a somewhat personal perspective on the man, see the obituaries at
http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/documents/obits/starbuck.html
— Martin
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Victor Curran · 17 October 2003
On your site, line 14 is missing a word. It should read:
“On voyage a Parnasse pour prendre les eaux.
[The “a” should have an accent grave.]
–VC