Archival post: Fannish Sonnets x2

[petra]

One of these I've posted publicly before, the other one I haven't. I like to think of myself as someone who doesn't write fannish poetry, though that is highly untrue, as anyone who's seen my vast and terrible collection of limericks well knows. I refound one of these and bethought myself of the other, so here they are.

DCU: Bruce/Tim, for Te:
Define "Unmasked"

To wear a mask may change one's face and name
Though underneath, the differences may come:
Surprising in their number, type, or place,
Hidden by flesh, demeanor, and custom.
Who needs a mask to play a role? Not I.
Rehearsal makes the lines flow fast and free
Which circumscribe my self, permit, deny
And dictate all my wish and would. I'll be
What name you call me, as you will me act
I shall, for in the guise of barest skin
I am, as ever, bound by our compact
To push us both beyond what we have been.
Regardless of the names we wear, we are
Constrained to know truth only by our scars.

Slings & Arrows: Geoffrey -> Darren, for Belmanoir:
Love/Hate

You are the most pretentious jerk I know,
And though it pains me to behold your face,
I see you almost everywhere I go.
Is nothing sacred? Isn't there one place
Where I can leave behind the sight of you
And all your ranting, raving blithering?
Your foolish games blight everything in view;
I would prefer you meek and dithering,
But here you stride, and there you lay your claim
To all that's good and true; you gladly mar
The least occasion with your curséd name
And doom it with your fast descending star.
(Would that you were not also such a spur
To my own muse; I'd slight you, but for her.)

It's worth noting that A Foolish Wit contains one of my favorite quatrains-by-me ever, while I'm cataloguing my sins against verse.

Comments

[hradzka.livejournal.com]

Well done. I cannot write sonnets for the life of me.

[petronelle.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you. I find them distressingly easy sometimes.

[snake-easing.livejournal.com]

Nice! The sonnet is my favorite verse form, it really is.

[petronelle.livejournal.com]

Thank you kindly!

[jadelennox]

I adore sonnets as a fiction form, because the constraints and the brevity force a real clarity of thought. The difference between these two in the stylistic language of the DCU versus the harshness of the S&A really brings that out. I particularly like the second one, because I love the contrast of the formality of a sonnet with an opening line like "you are the most pretentious jerk I know". That's not just funny, it's also wonderfully rich, and really gets into Geoffrey as a character, the kind of character who could recite a sonnet that called somebody else "pretentious", and the kind of character who could find the iambic feet in the natural flow of English prose. And then how it flows from their into more poetic language.

I love these.

[petronelle.livejournal.com]

I don't write the blessed things often -- possibly not often enough -- but I'm really glad you enjoyed these two.

I remain greatly fond of the latter opening line for just those reasons. Thank you so much for your kind words.

[samjohnsson]

This? This is a sonnet I like. Imagistically solid, and some interesting structural twists!

[petra]

I mostly love it because starting a sonnet with "You are the most pretentious jerk I know" is still the epitome of ridiculousness, and also the soul of the characters' relationship, but hurray for its holding together as a poem too.

[elmyraemilie]

Wow. Here via The Snowflake Challenge, and geez, this is good verse. You turn that "oo" sound around beautifully in the last six lines. Thanks for reccing this!

[petra]

Thank you so much! I am afraid (very afraid) that I write fannish poetry as a matter of course, these days, though mostly ridiculous limericks with a few bouts of sonnets to taste, and the occasional villanelle.