Thursday sonnet

Day with evening class, again.  So here’s sonnet 55 before that:

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LV

  Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

  Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;

  But you shall shine more bright in these contents

  Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.

  When wasteful war shall statues overturn,

  And broils root out the work of masonry,

  Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn

  The living record of your memory.

  'Gainst death, and all-oblivious enmity

  Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room

  Even in the eyes of all posterity

  That wear this world out to the ending doom.

    So, till the judgment that yourself arise,

    You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.

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The whole judgement day thing shows up everywhere in the work of some of my favorite Indian poets  J  On the other hand, this sonnet’s self-referential:  The this powerful rhyme in line 2, the these contents in line 3, the living record in line 8, the your praise in line 10, and the this in the last line all refer to Sonnet 55 of Shakespeare.

At any rate, the volta is the so, till at the beginning of the closing couplet.  Now I’ll go to Dr. Bechler’s class, and I’ll post the next sonnet tomorrow.