Phil Wyman: Dim Saesneg

I am on a sonnet kick. I will be writing sonnets regularly for awhile. They will not all be Shakespearean. Other less common variations will occur. I will be looking to provide the volta (turn of thought or focus) in each sonnet, and most will be divinely focused sonnets – spirituals of a sort. Why sonnets? Because, this a great way to practice both lyric for song writing, and creating beautiful meter for all my writing. If you are not familiar with sonnets, check out the Wiki on the subject. You may find the numbers jumping, because I may not place all of them on these pages. I will reserve this spot for the divine sonnets.

Sonnet #6

My heartbeat drips, waters the fertile pain
and morning comes before my eyes can close
I bit upon the thorn to hold the rose
and sacrificed my tongue for love again

Is sleeplessness the prick of sacrifice?
or foolish well intentioned overplay?
Perhaps the love of self disguised and made
into a grand divine heroic vice

I stumble out to well worn days and thread
the needle of my enemies delight
“Physician, heal thyself,” they said, and I
will ask the Lord about my daily bread
must I bow down and take this bitter bite?
Is this the singleness – the dead of eye?

Might as well add a little background to these little pieces:

• Rhyme scheme: abba cddc efgefg
• Notice that I have also included internal rhyming between 9 and 11, and repeated that again between 12 and 14 (thread, said, bread, dead)
• further internal rhyming occurs in 1 – waTERS the FERTile, 13 – BOW DOWN, 14 – THIS the singleNESS
• the iambic pentameter flows perfectly except in the stilted start of line 1 where waters is emphasized in reverse – waTERS, rather than WAters. Like the clumsy beginning to our self examinations.
• some alliteration occuring, but randomly: 2, 5, 9, 13 with a not quite cynghanedd-like reversed alliteration from 12 to 13 (daily bread – bow down, db bd)
• “dead of eye” in the close is most certainly a pregnant play on words, which ranges from “deadeye” to the “death of I (self).”
• The volta (turn of thought) occurs in line 9 – traditional, I know. The turn is a subtle move from sleeplessness, to rising and stumbling through questioning days.