Note: Here are five poems that make up what I call, "Five Lessons - For Love of Sonnet". I wrote them in 5 consecutive days this past week.  The first four are sonnets and the final poem is an epilogue patterned after Puck's famous final speech in Midsummer Night's Dream. As I had mentioned in CA, the sonnets themselves were written to express my love for the beloved form while stating how I felt about over-emphasizing the kind of critique that over-emphasizes some of the strict rules ordinarily applied to this form. Please don't get me wrong...I welcome crit and suggestions where "errors" are made or alternatives would enhance. I WANT correction and input. But as you read these "lessons" you will see that I believe in balance and when you realize that Shakespeare and others took many liberties, you may understand my message.

Please crit as many as you can, if you wish...or just leave comments. I am looking forward to inproving these and also debating any issues I may have brought up in this exercise.

>>and for a bit of "To Be" humor, try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwbB6B0cQs4

Lesson #1
"More Feet Than Verses Would Bear" *

I carry in my rucksack many words,
And when I do unzip they all fly out
Upon the page in ways you've never heard.
And then the purists all begin to shout:

"Hey, you can't put more feet into this line
than Shakespeare or Fran Petrarch would allow;
And furthermore how dare you should malign
the purest form of verse back then or now."

But even Will, or Milton, didn't care
If once or twice they didn't use strict form;
If even they could mess up here and there,
Then, gentle folks, we should not reprove Norm.

     So though it ain't so perfect just don't strike it
     E' en though I didn't say it as you like it.
     
© Norman S. Pollack 

==============================
*From "As You Like It" Act III Scene 2
>>>> William Shakespeare

"TOUCHSTONE: Come, shepherd, let us make an honourable retreat;
though not with bag and baggage, yet with scrip and scrippage.

Exeunt CORIN and TOUCHSTONE 

CELIA. Didst thou hear these verses?
 
ROSALIND. O, yes, I heard them all, and more too; for some of them
had in them more feet than the verses would bear.
 
CELIA. That's no matter; the feet might bear the verses.

ROSALIND. Ay, but the feet were lame, and could not bear themselves
without the verse, and therefore stood lamely in the verse."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Lesson #2
Please Don't Purge My Double-Couplet

Spondees sometime start the lines in poems
Hey!  "poems" could be one or maybe two
syllables --- it don't take Sherlock Holmes
to figure out just what you are to do
when reading lines that writers call IP.
Hell, common sense is what should be applied--
why so hung up on regularity?
Methinks the old and new, they can collide;
we shouldn't treat all lines with clyster-pipes,
purging, sucking out all things perceived
to be like blockage. Critics then take swipes
so they themselves can somehow feel relieved.

I understand the purist has concern;
I care about this form and love to learn.
So here's a double-couplet for diversion;
hope they do not preach it's a perversion.

© Norman S. Pollack

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Lesson #3
A Modern Quill Doth Come Too Short*

Another common argument described
is that the words should always modern be;
as if to say can only be imbibed
if spoken in this latest century.
And furthermore, some say the thoughts should flow
and be contemporary as they're spoken;
no wayward words should we dare bestow
speak nothing that's old fashion as a token.
We're told to pen our words like this and stay
within the laws they're dictating to us
in order that we dare not ever stray...
oh, come now, friends, this is ridiculous!
     A sonnet's not common, everyone knows;
     it's poetry, folks...stop makin' it prose.

© Norman S. Pollack 

*"How far a modern quill doth come too short"  --- Shakespeare's Sonnet 73

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Lesson #4
DUM-de-de DUM-DUM

We know that almost every sonnet line
Should go de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM;
But in this instance I trochaic sign:
Dum-de de Dum de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM

Then throw in a caesura; that's a pause:
"To be or not to be. That is the question;" *
Oh my, now that last line does give me cause
To question that most famous quote's aggression:

Eleven syllables that quote doth have.
Forsooth, the bard himself has thus transgressed;
And sometimes with near-rhymes he'll make us laugh
'cause with a sense of humour, he was blessed.
     
     'tis ne'er nor oft, contractions set aside,
     that rules can e'er be broken or complied (with).

© Norman S. Pollack 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Epilogue (#5)

When It Comes To Sonnets I Give a Puck

If these sonnets have offended,
Know all four were not presented
In any nasty manner here,
But rather to make this more clear:
I, just as honest as dear Puck,
Do not wish to give a shuck
To all the rules and strip form bare.
Oh no, I only wished to share
That we shouldn't take rules for granted;
Neither are they carved in granite.
Five centuries since Will's been dead,
We should listen to what he said
Each time we nit-pick...disagree:
"Lord, what fools these mortals be." *
So write and read all sonnets, friend;
Any way they may be penned.

© Norman S. Pollack 

* From Act III, Sc 2 - Midsummer Night's Dream (Puck)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

Here is Puck's final speech at the end of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream

"If we shadows have offended,   
Think but this, and all is mended,   
That you have but slumber’d here   
While these visions did appear.   
And this weak and idle theme,   
No more yielding but a dream,   
Gentles, do not reprehend:   
If you pardon, we will mend.   
And, as I’m an honest Puck,    
If we have unearned luck   
Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,   
We will make amends ere long;   
Else the Puck a liar call:    
So, good night unto you all.   
Give me your hands, if we be friends,   
And Robin shall restore amends."