Bardleby Sonnetry

My rant about sonnets using a traditional sonnet form in the style of a bard and borrowing a phrase from Melville's scrivener, Bartleby. Feel free to disregard my preferences. I often do.

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Abuse a sonnet? I’d prefer not to.

Use varied lengths that would not suit a bard;

slant rhyme or none; mixed meter; form askew;

let go its flow and leave its rhythm scarred?

Sometimes one stanza, other times far more?

Ignoring voltas not inviolate?

It doesn’t matter what has gone before—

let now be now, tradition left unmet!

Let no one count its feet nor walk its path.

If called a sonnet, form may be assumed

although it lacks the features they once hath

(true rhyme begged this archaic word untombed).

What’s in a name? That game should carry blame.

Don’t call a thorn a rose—they’re not the same.

By Ken Gosse

From: United States

Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/ken.gosse/