Poetry Jam 2020: EBB

[lunabee34]

Our reading selection for this month is Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese. Can't wait to see what you all think about this collection.



May: Sandra Cisneros' My Wicked Wicked Ways

June: Carl Sandburg Honey and Salt

July: Mascha: The Poems of Mascha Kaléko

August: Shakespeare's sonnets

September: W. D. Snodgrass' Not for Specialists

October: Toi Derricotte's Tender

November: Franny Choi's Soft Science

December: Pablo Neruda's The Heights of Machu Picchu

Comments

[lunabee34]

I was given my copy of these poems for Christmas 1994, and I have such vivid memories of laying on my bed and reading them and thinking that "How Do I Love Thee" is so perfect that I could just die. LOL I still think that. That particular sonnet is one of my absolute favorite poems, not a word out of place.

This volume has 23 additional love poems appended, and I do not like them at all with one satirical exception. They all rhyme and are full of the stressed ed and words like certes, and it's just everything I do not like about pre-20th century poetry. They also all repeat the same themes as Sonnets from the Portuguese, but SftP does it so much better that they pale in comparison.

The one poem I like is called "A Man's Requirement," and after multiple stanzas of a man saying what he requires in a woman, it ends with him saying he can only be faithful for six months. I think Duffy would dig it. LOL

[lunabee34]

I love the structure of this sonnet cycle. I love the way the speaker moves from fear and despair to feeling unworthy of love to doubting love to finally accepting love joyfully.

1: I love the erotic image of Love holding her head back by the hair, baring her neck for the blade if Death but for ravishment since it's Love not Death that grips her)

3: the refrain of them being so different from each other and her being unworthy of his interest because he's so fine and talented begins here and then is repeated throughout

5: I love the image of her heart as an urn full of ashes of grief in which some coals remain; as a reader, I expect this image to conclude with her saying that he could stoke those coals and thus her love, but she concludes by saying those coals could alight and burn him; that's it dangerous for him and he should leave; I like that unexpected turn

7: "the face of all the world is changed" <3

10: love the image of fire here; whatever the fuel (whether rich or poor), all fire burns brightly

14: this is my second favorite of the sonnets; she asks him to only love her for love's sake instead of any of her qualities which might change

18-19 they exchange locks of hair

21: "who can fear / too many stars"

39: "the grace / to look through and behind this mask of me"

43: this is my favorite; it is so beautiful; my favorite lines are "I love thee to the level of everyday's / most quiet need"

18-44

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

19-the first line (so far) is my favourite line from the whole lot. (The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandize;). It's just a lovely phrase and image.

24-as far as whole sonnet I think this is my favourite (so far). The image of the folding knife is a new one to me, and I think she does brilliantly with the related imagery and language here.

25-Another favourite-I like the second half. And as someone who is always searching for a good volta upon which the sonnet should turn and 'My heavy heart.' is such a great one. And the last line is so good, too. (Betwixt the stars and the unaccomplished fate.) It makes me think of my vampire Holmes, too, so I may get a ficlet out of this one.

26-The first four lines are very poignant. (I lived with visions for my company, etc.)

28-Again the first four line are really wonderful. I seem to only like one half or the other. I suppose I like it when she's being clever, not when she's talking about the boy.

33-the pet name one. The last two lines are very sweet. (Yes, call me by that name,—and I, in truth, / With the same heart, will answer and not wait.)

37-I really like the last image of the shipwrecked pagan setting the statue of the dolphin in the temple. There's an AU waiting to happen.

I am slowly reading The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry and doing the exercise and by chance am on the section about rhyme. There's a balance between the two rules of rhyme (rule #1 don't use obvious pairs and #2 don't draw attention to your rhyme). She definitely uses the obvious pairs (even the dreaded 'love' and 'dove') but they are love sonnets and were very personal and the sentiment makes up for it.

Re: 18-44

[lunabee34]

I love the folding knife image, too. It's a unique one I haven't seen elsewhere.

I like Fry's rules for rhyme and agree with them.

1-17

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

1-I liked the last two lines so much that I put them in a ficlet. Vampire-Sherlock Holmes writes them on Werewolf-Watson after sex and the words turn into silver moths when Watson wants to wash them off. Very dramatic.

3-I like the angels wings brushing. It made me think of Good Omens but I haven't put it in a fic (yet). I like the parallel of his chrism and her dew but I'm not certain what the last line really means.

7-I like that line as well.

9-I like the rhyme of Venice-glass and let it pass.

14-I agree it's a very nice sentiment

17-I like the first six lines (before she starts to dwell on how unworthy she is)

I listened to these on Librivox.org. I found a British female reader (the third solo verison, username newgatenovelist) and she sounds like she just took a heavy dose of laudanum and is off to haunt someone's mirror. It's perfect for these highly sentiment works, I think. I haven't finished all of them but plan to in the new few days.

Re: 1-17

[lunabee34]

1: Oh that's lovely! I'm glad you were inspired.

3: I think the last line means that only in death in the afterlife will they be made equal in talent and worth.

I do get frustrated with her dwelling on a sense of unworthiness in herself, but I can take it in this one poem cycle. She apparently comes back to it again and again in her other poetry, though, it grows tedious.