Fleeting

Fleeting Thought

Where might a fleeting thought once gone be found ?

 Perhaps, truth meeting fallacy may find,

 Treasure trove of reason where thoughts abound,                                    

 A trace of bankruptcy confounds sound mind;   

 Somewhere above, ephemeral wisps known ,  

 Nowhere in view can clouded thoughts eschew;          

 From where, forsooth, can sword be drawn from stone?    

 Sharp minds command befuddlement  subdue.

What was that thought which I can’t remember?                 

 Recall it, I will, too late to value;

 Too lame a mind to raise fire from ember,                                  

Was it a thought worth dear time to pursue?                         

Cling not to the old thought, thought yesterday;          

Bear in mind this moment’s moment, this day.    

Gerry Gilligan, a/k/a Sligobay

Copyright 2010, all rights reserved

A sonnet is a poetic form used by great poets such as  Shakespeare, W.B.Yeats and Robert Frost, to name a few, over the past five hundred years. Blank verse and "free range" rhymnes are a "walk in the park" by comparison.

Poetry is a discipline, if one chooses to pursue the craft. Other Hubs address the numerous formats to which poets conform from Japanese Haiku to Korean Siku. There are links to a few Hubs below.  This Hub is confined to the format of sonnets which are of two types; the English sonnet and the Italian sonnet.

The English Sonnet

The theme of the sonnet is divided into two sections. The initial section presents the situation or thought while the conclusion or climax is presented by the second section. The first section consists of three quatrains, a four line stanza. That means three stanzas, each containing four lines or a total of twelve lines. Write the three quatrains using a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f rhyme scheme.

The next section should consist of a couplet, i.e., two rhyming lines of poetry. The couplet should use a g-g rhyme scheme, where the last words of the two lines rhyme with each other.

Most sonnets use the iambic pentameter.  An iamb is a metrical 'foot' composed of two syllables, with the accent on the second syllable. A few examples are 'to-day','dis-may' and  'en-rage.'

Pentameter means there are five metrical feet per line. Therefore, Iambic pentameter means each line consists of five iambic feet (10 total syllables).

The Italian Sonnet

 An Italian sonnet uses a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a rhymne scheme for the first section consisting of eight lines, called the octave. ( As an aside, this is similar to a musical octave which consists of a scale of eight notes.)  The second section, called the sestet , uses a rhymne sheme of  c-d-e-c-d-e. An acceptable variation allows the sestet to use a rhymne scheme of c-d-c-d-c-d .  Most Italian sonnets use iambic pentameter as with their English cousin.

THE SILKEN TENT

by Robert Frost

She is as in a field a silken tent
At midday when the sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,
So that in guys it gently sways at ease,
And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward
And signifies the sureness of the soul,
Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To every thing on earth the compass round,
And only by one's going slightly taut
In the capriciousness of summer air
Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

SONNET I

 I

1. From fairest creatures we desire increase,
2. That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
3. But as the riper should by time decease,
4. His tender heir might bear his memory:
5. But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
6. Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
7. Making a famine where abundance lies,
8. Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
9. Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
10. And only herald to the gaudy spring,
11. Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
12. And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding:
13. Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
14. To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.