Sonnet Thread

13»

Comments

  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtly_love

    Good place to start, for research, although it's only Wikipedia.
  • oldermanolderman Posts: 1,765
    LOVE AND SLEEP.

    LYING asleep between the strokes of night
    I saw my love lean over my sad bed,
    Pale as the duskiest lily's leaf or head,
    Smooth-skinned and dark, with bare throat made to bite,
    Too wan for blushing and too warm for white,
    But perfect-coloured without white or red.
    And her lips opened amorously, and said--
    I wist not what, saving one word--Delight.
    And all her face was honey to my mouth,
    And all her body pasture to mine eyes;
    The long lithe arms and hotter hands than fire,
    The quivering flanks, hair smelling of the south,
    The bright light feet, the splendid supple thighs
    And glittering eyelids of my soul's desire.
    Down the street you can hear her scream youre a disgrace
    As she slams the door in his drunken face
    And now he stands outside
    And all the neighbours start to gossip and drool
    He cries oh, girl you must be mad,
    What happened to the sweet love you and me had?
    Against the door he leans and starts a scene,
    And his tears fall and burn the garden green
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    olderman wrote:
    LOVE AND SLEEP.

    LYING asleep between the strokes of night
    I saw my love lean over my sad bed,
    Pale as the duskiest lily's leaf or head,
    Smooth-skinned and dark, with bare throat made to bite,
    Too wan for blushing and too warm for white,
    But perfect-coloured without white or red.
    And her lips opened amorously, and said--
    I wist not what, saving one word--Delight.
    And all her face was honey to my mouth,
    And all her body pasture to mine eyes;
    The long lithe arms and hotter hands than fire,
    The quivering flanks, hair smelling of the south,
    The bright light feet, the splendid supple thighs
    And glittering eyelids of my soul's desire.


    Now that's what I call erotic poetry.
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,279
    Now that's what I call erotic poetry.
    Erotic? The dude wants to eat her like a ham sandwich. :D
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • oldermanolderman Posts: 1,765
    Ms. Haiku wrote:
    Erotic? The dude wants to eat her like a ham sandwich. :D

    more like a cannoli i think :p
    Down the street you can hear her scream youre a disgrace
    As she slams the door in his drunken face
    And now he stands outside
    And all the neighbours start to gossip and drool
    He cries oh, girl you must be mad,
    What happened to the sweet love you and me had?
    Against the door he leans and starts a scene,
    And his tears fall and burn the garden green
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,279
    olderman wrote:
    more like a cannoli i think :p
    There you go! I stand corrected. Italian pastry it is. :D
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,279
    You who follow me in time remember
    to not be me. Do not punish yourselves
    with songs, books, poetry of love fasting
    on future as if it would deliver.

    If we were standing nose to nose and stared
    into each other's eyes as if the pools
    we drown in would save us, I would step back
    from my true loves' face and rebuild that wall
    of resistance. For what do I know locked
    in years observing violence scattered
    within marriages of love and hope, but
    too often love's blood flowed chaotically.

    If you find love mirror the form: stand as
    he stands; exposed, crumble as he crumbles.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,279
    Ms. Haiku wrote:
    You who follow me in time remember
    to not be me. Do not punish yourselves
    with songs, books, poetry of love fasting
    on future as if it would deliver.

    If we were standing nose to nose and stared
    into each other's eyes as if the pools
    we drown in would save us, I would step back
    from my true loves' face and rebuild that wall
    of resistance. For what do I know locked
    in years observing violence scattered
    within marriages of love and hope, but
    too often love's blood flowed chaotically.

    If you find love mirror the form: stand as
    he stands; exposed, crumble as he crumbles.
    You who follow me in time remember
    to not be me. Do not punish yourselves
    with songs, books, poetry of love fasting
    on future as if it would deliver.

    If we were standing nose to nose and stared
    into each other's eyes as if the pools
    we drown in would save us, I would step back
    from my true loves' face and rebuild that wall
    of resistance. For what do I know locked
    in years observing violence scattered
    within marriages of photographs, but
    too often marriages are one-sided.

    If you find love mirror the form: stand as
    he stands; exposed, crumble as he crumbles.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • But did such people ever exist, except as idyllic constructions of the speaker's imaginings? Often what makes poems such as Petrarch's Laura sonnets so powerful is the fact that she is simultaneously unattainable, virtuous yet also implicitly sexually knowing, as a married woman. Petrarch's physical wish for Laura is tangibly expressed, and his desire occasionally overwhelms his expression of his pure love for her; but then Laura dies, and Petrarch starts to struggle with the consequences of his desires, and how they undercut the piety of his grand love.


    I think its pretty well documented that Beatrice was a real person - Dante first met her when he was around 18 and she was something like 7 or 8...But they didn't meet again for another 5 years - making her around twelve when he first implemented his designs upon her.......Ho-Hum...
    What do you call 3 sheep tied together in the middle of Wales? - A Leisure Centre.
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    I think its pretty well documented that Beatrice was a real person - Dante first met her when he was around 18 and she was something like 7 or 8...But they didn't meet again for another 5 years - making her around twelve when he first implemented his designs upon her.......Ho-Hum...

    Oh, Beatrice was. Yep, "Dodgy Dante", they called him. ;)
Sign In or Register to comment.