[194] Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line

O for a muse of fire, a sack of dough,
Or both! O promissory notes of woe!
One time in Santa Fe N.M.
Ol' Winfield Townley Scott and I ... But whoa.

One can exert oneself, ff ,
Or architect a heaven like Rimbaud,
Or if that seems, how shall I say, de trop ,
One can at least write sonnets, a propos
Of nothing save the do-re-mi-fa-sol
Of poetry itself. Is not the row
Of perfect rhymes, the terminal bon mot,
Obeisance enough to the Great O?

"Observe," said Chairman Mao to Premier Chou,
"On voyage à Parnasse pour prendre les eaux.
On voyage comme poisson, incog."

		-- George Starbuck

Notes:
    N.M.: New Mexico
    ff: fortissimo (musical term, 'very loud')
    de trop: too much
    bon mot: clever saying
    French sentences:
      they travel to Parnassus[1] to take the waters,
      they travel as fish

  [1] Name of a mountain in central Greece, anciently sacred to Apollo and
      the Muses; hence used allusively in reference to literature, esp.
      poetry. -- OED


Rhyme scheme: aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Today's poem is not so much poetry as verse. However, it is a wonderfully
ingenious piece of verse, and I for one am an unabashed fan of ingenuity. As
an added bonus, it's not only a poem about poetry (see previous theme <g>)
but a poem about itself. The latter, incidentally, is a not-too-unusual
device in poems whose main focus is their form - inverting the scheme of
things somewhat, the content highlights and reinforces the form, explicitly
pointing out its various features. On the down side, it's a slightly
overused technique, and one that is liable to topple over the fine line
between 'crafted' and 'contrived' - nonetheless, when well done it can, and
has, produced some delightful poems.

Biography:

  George Starbuck 1931 - 1996

  There's not much about Starbuck online - for a somewhat personal
  perspective on the man, see the obituaries at

  http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/documents/obits/starbuck.html

m.

From: "Victor Curran" <vacurran@>

On your site, line 14 is missing a word. It should read:

"On voyage a Parnasse pour prendre les eaux.

[The "a" should have an accent grave.]

--VC