new form every day... Australian Sonnet (Bowlesian Sonnet) (day 3 of 365 in 365)

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2011-01-03 18:39:00


A SMILE SHOULD INVOKE JOY

I can't deny my first response
was jealousy at her beauty
as though bound by simple duty
just from vision seen only once

I can't deny jealousy took me
as though beaten by just her smile
not noticed by him in a while
I am root bound like bitter tree

inward bound by this bitter root
such a poisonous attitude
and all the danger this includes
so simply does this math compute

and this is something to let go
positive yes, negative no



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From: http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/list.html


Australian Sonnet (Bowlesian Sonnet)

William Lisle Bowles (24 September 1762 - 7 April 1850) was the undoubted originator of this sonnet form in England. He was a high ranking minister in the Church of England, and although it was popular for a while it settled into obscurity, meanwhile admirers of his poetry were setting out as missionaries to the colonies. Whilst Canada was a colony it might be suggested that it was less in need of religious supervision than the penal colony of Australia and the Aussie outback which was the ideal breeding ground for poets and poetry. Back in the towns the clergy would no doubt recite Bowles poetry and people would be far more influenced by his sonnets than his longer forms. Later the ladies of the church group would no doubt recite their version of that poem and again no doubt the budding Banjo, or Lawson would play with this form and in copying their Northern counterpart send messages of love to their women back in the towns and villages, and in due time the origin of this form would be forgotten, until one day a curious poet picked up a tatty book of poetry dated 1903 and saw several sonnets there all unique in form and two handwritten sonnets in the back dated 1914. It is assumed that the owner of the book died in the Great War. This sonnet form has three Envelope quatrains and a couplet, which gives a rhyme sequence of;
a. b. b. a.... c. d. d. c..... e. f. f. e.... g. g.... Each sonnet is Tetrameter, Pentameter, or similar.



NOTE:
the poem above is in tetrameter but I'll admit that the feet are not true because the sylable accents are not uniform through the whole poem plus I have an extra syllable here and there.

Also... it is inspired by a tumblr reblog of a picture of a girl... omg this sucks so hard... posting it anyway.



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