Part 13 (1/2)

Here is another sonnet ending in a couplet, which I quote for several reasons. In the first place, the poet, while using the couplet, has avoided the dangers of the epigram. In the second place, he comes as close to writing a narrative as the sonneteer may safely do. In the third place he deviates from the strict rules of the sonnet in one important particular, which should be at once apparent to every student of the subject. I do not refer to the false rhyme of ”Africa” and ”bar”--the deviation which I mean refers only to the sonnet form, and has to do with the arrangement of the thought.

BOOKRA

BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER

One night I lay asleep in Africa, In a closed garden by the city gate; A desert horseman, furious and late, Came wildly thundering at the ma.s.sive bar, ”Open in Allah's name! Wake, Mustapha!

Slain is the Sultan,--treason, war, and hate Rage from Fez to Tetuan! Open straight.”

The watchman heard as thunder from afar:

”Go to! in peace this city lies asleep; To all-knowing Allah 'tis no news you bring”; Then turned in slumber still his watch to keep.

At once a nightingale began to sing, In oriental calm the garden lay,-- Panic and war postponed another day.

The deviation to which I refer is the lack of absolute distinction between the octave and the sestet. If the rules of the sonnet were strictly followed, the line which introduces the watchman would begin the sestet instead of closing the octave.

The best form of the Petrarchan sonnet for the novice in versification to use in practice is the form I first described, that in which the rhyme scheme is _a, b, b, a, a, b, b, a, c, d, c, d, c, d_. But if you find that this at first presents insurmountable difficulty, use three rhymes in the sestet instead of two, as in the two poems following. In these, you will see, the rhyme scheme of the sestet is _c, d, e, c, d, e_. The first is a deeply introspective study by one of the greatest women poets of our generation; the second is more true to the traditional type of sonnet in thought, giving the subject in the octave, and the lesson drawn therefrom in the sestet. It is the work of a young American poet whose name is familiar to every reader of American magazines.

RENOUNCEMENT

BY ALICE MEYNELL

I must not think of thee; and, tired yet strong, I shun the love that lurks in all delight-- The love of thee--and in the blue heaven's height, And in the dearest pa.s.sage of a song.

Oh, just beyond the fairest thoughts that throng This breast, the thought of thee waits hidden yet bright; But it must never, never come in sight; I must stop short of thee the whole day long.

But when sleep comes to close each difficult day, When night gives pause to the long watch I keep, And all my bonds I need must lay apart, Must doff my will as raiment laid away,-- With the first dream that comes with the first sleep I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart.

CANDLE-LIGHT

BY THOMAS S. JONES, JR.

As in old days of mellow candle-light, A little flame of gold beside the pane Where icy branches blowing in the rain Seem spectre fingers of a ghostly night; Yet on the hearth the fire is warm and bright, The homely kettle steams a soft refrain, And to one's mind old things rush back again, Sweet tender things still young in death's despite.

So, when the winter blasts across life's sea Do beat about my door and shale the walls Until the house must sink upon the sand, Then on some magic wind of memory, Borne swiftly to my heart a whisper falls,-- And on my arm the pressure of your hand!

Here is another famous modern sonnet, in which the three rhymes of the sestet are arranged in the order _c, d, e, e, c, d_.

THE ODYSSEY

BY ANDREW LANG

As one that for a weary s.p.a.ce has lain Lulled by the song of Circe and her wine In gardens near the pale of Proserpine, Where that aeaean isle forgets the main, And only the low lutes of love complain, And only shadows of wan lovers pine,-- As such an one were glad to know the brine Salt on his lips, and the large air again,--

So gladly, from the songs of modern speech Men turn, and see the stars, feel the free Shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers, And through the music of the languid hours, They hear like ocean on a western beach The surge and thunder of the Odyssey.

This sonnet has been criticized by Professor Brander Matthews, not on account of its rhyme scheme, but because of its lack of what he calls tone-color. I will discuss the subject of tone-color later, but it may be well at this point to explain that this criticism means that the rhymes of this sonnet are not sufficiently varied--that ”lain” does not differ sufficiently from ”wine,” and ”free” does not differ sufficiently from ”beach” (the first two words being similar in consonantal value, and the second two in vowel value) to warrant their use--the theory being that the rhymes used in a sonnet should contrast strongly with each other--”lain” and ”hide,” for example, and ”free” and ”sh.o.r.e,” for example, contrasting more strikingly than the words used. This contrast in tone-color, to use that phrase, may be noticed in this strongly-wrought sonnet of William Watson's. How strikingly the sound of ”old,” in the octave contrasts with that of ”ing,” and how strikingly in the sestet ”ove” contrasts with ”ire.” The poet uses but two rhymes in the sestet, the arrangement being _c, d, d, c, d, c_.

TO ONE WHO HAD WRITTEN IN DERISION OF THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY

BY WILLIAM WATSON

Dismiss not so, with light hard phrase and cold, Ev'n if it be but fond imagining, The hope whereto so pa.s.sionately cling The dreaming generations from of old!