Sunday 26 May 2013

will can be understood



 A sonnets notebook can be lightly done,
there is no recipe exists for thought;
my first appraisal somewhat jumped the gun -
though fairly put, since order can be taught -
but the mind bears close examination,
honesty must be measured out and – will.
Will requires sound, written-up creation
to relish what’s been thought about, and still
between the tenor and the vehicle,
the general and the one, human conduct
remains our theme, that spark and particle
of mind’s not caught save it is held  intact.
So the chase goes on, more chaste, more careful,
not rhyme alone, oh no, rhyme's a trifle…


This season i will mainly be writing sonnets,  for the exercise in form.  With a dozen or so pomes a month I thought pictures would give the notebook an agreeable, renaissance air: appropriate then to start with a drawing or two from Michelangelo's frescoes: here's my copy of an Adam and, probably, an Eve. For other guidance, MB's own sonnets might have lost some quality in translation, Shakespeare was brilliant though his light is cold and now Ba Browning looks warmer, at first glance warmer, so I'm curling up with her Sonnets from the Portuguese. EBB is very good.