Wordsworth wrote an endless poem in blank verse on” the growth of a poet’s mind.” I shall attempt a more modest feat for a more distracted age: a blog, “Things which a Lifetime of Trying to Be a Poet has Taught Me.”
Finally by my junior year I was starting to hit my stride in the sonnet. Here’s the first one with no blatant cheating, no use of archaisms to make the rhyme and meter work. Not that I would not descend to such expedients again. They are OK if one has some excuse for them justified by the topic. But merely using Shakespeare’s form does not give one carte blanche to use his language when one is not addressing his contemporaries.
SONNET IV
A new-born leaf and an ancient, lofty star
Converge in space and time before my eye;
The one as near as is the other far,
And both are wondrous things—but both will die.
The leaf will wither in the summer sun
Or else be blasted by chill winter air
And wither just the same—it all is one;
But while it lives, it lives, and it is fair.
Before man woke to see, this star was bright,
And when the last man sleeps it will remain.
But someday there will be a starless night,
And nothing, ever again, will be the same.
And yet we pray to Him who outlives all
And know that He will hear us when we call!
Don’t forget: for more poetry like this, go to https://www.createspace.com/3562314 and order Stars Through the Clouds, the most significant poetic offering of the 21st century!
Donald T. Williams, PhD
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