Spenserian Sonnet
One day I’ll write a poem that will say,
The things I truly feel deep in my heart.
Your love surrounds me, keeps the world at bay,
Like mist before the sun my fears depart.
The mirror of your soul, your eyes, impart,
All your reluctant lips refuse to speak.
Just as a fire is kindled from one spark,
Your love ignites a flame that burns unique.
Then banished all those dreams and that mystique
That held me as a prisoner to their thrall.
Now you alone are everything I seek.
Sing out my name I’ll answer if you call.
If this is love I never knew its worth
Until you made my heaven here on earth.
In a list
Does it fit the form? are scansion and stress okay?
Comments
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Dear Pattiboo,
Yet another sonnet triumph from your pen! Congratulations.
Although Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) is credited with being the first to introduce the sonnet into English poetry, followed by Henry Howard (Earl of Surrey) (1517-47) and
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86), they followed the Italian (non-Sicilian) form of ottavo and sestet established by Petrarcha. It was Edmund Spenser (1552-99) who broke from this form, employing three quatrains (abab,bcbc,cdcd) and a rhyming couplet
(ee) with the volta at the couplet in most of his 32 sonnets, thus setting the pattern for the "English" (as opposed to the "Italian") sonnet form which was adopted by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) in almost all of his 154 poems in sonnet form with (abab,cdcd,efef,gg) rhyme-scheme, the volta occurring at line #9 or #13 variously. Apart from John Milton who returned to the Italian Sonnet style,
most poets since have tended to use the Shakespearean pattern for their sonnets,
the Spenserian scheme being rarely followed.
I have, in fact, very few examples of the Spenserian style in the Wyleian sonnet collection and would therefore be extremely grateful if you will allow me to include this excellent example as number CCLXII.
With thanks in anticipation, applause, love and hugs, XXX Hugh.
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Good sonnet
But why is it Spenserian? There exists a Spenserian stanza, but I can't find any book references to a Spenserian sonnet. Your rhyme scheme is basically Shakespearean. The use of rhymes between Ls 5-6, 8-9 is very nice, but doesn't make it Spenserian - unless you can persuade me that Spenser did it a lot. There's no obvious volta, but you could easily put one in, by changing L9 to "Banished are now those dreams and that mystique" to stress the change that the volta (It. turn) indicates.
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