To Byron

[Veronique]

I think the sonnet as a form flaws itself--nears
suicide-- but is talked off the ledge by this pane-
gyric which convinces the sonnet that life is worth
living.

Come down. I have tea and a warm blanket.

No one demands that a sonnet be an amplitude of com-
prehension, nor is eloquence its sole possession, nor
overwhelming declamation rudimentary.

The sonnet's natural pose is one of oddness, even when
sonnets were common. Oddness in commonality.

Odd. Odd.

i think odd for the reason a sonnet discerns and displays
a commitment-- two terms describing religious language--
not found in other poetry forms. My feeling this is so is
faint-- so faint I have not even an eidetic blurr.

I'm talking about affect.

I'll tell you what I'm going to do-- I'll run this sonnet
through Aristotle's Figures of Pathos and see what I
can find.
***
The poem

You need not ponder changes wrought by age,
***
apagoresis-- statement designed to inhibit someone from
doing something.[
**
my vain and venal baron, for the truth
**
inter se pugmamtia-- direct addreess to reprove
someone
**
of you is held on time’s ungreying page
and you will dwell eternally in youth.
**
paenismus-- expressing that an evil has been avoided
**
However deep depravity might sink,
such wings as you were given shall not fail,
**
more paenismus
**
though courses may not pass as you would think –
**
ominatio-- something akin to prophecy-- ominous
in tone
**
you soar, while pious saints grow old and stale.
**
epimone-- persistent repetition of the same idea
**
Humanity has flaws; the fiery eye
burns deep within, a passion seeking form;
**
cataplexis-- payback
**
its beauty is the lightning gone awry,
**
exuscitatio-- guiding the audience to the poet's
feeling
**
yet only fools and poets ride the storm.
**
epanorthosis-- amending a thought by altering
**
To capture others’ hearts you broke your own
now through their unmourned dust you rise alone.
**
[i]epitrope-- Here the poet turns things over to the
reader.

**
This was fun...

v