Monday, December 30, 2013

If it be poison'd ...

Does not feel like a Monday  J  Morning sonnet:
________________________________________
CXIV

  Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you,
  Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery?
  Or whether shall I say, mine eye saith true,
  And that your love taught it this alchemy,
  To make of monsters and things indigest
  Such cherubins as your sweet self resemble,
  Creating every bad a perfect best,
  As fast as objects to his beams assemble?
  O! 'tis the first, 'tis flattery in my seeing,
  And my great mind most kingly drinks it up:
  Mine eye well knows what with his gust is 'greeing,
  And to his palate doth prepare the cup:
    If it be poison'd, 'tis the lesser sin
    That mine eye loves it and doth first begin.
________________________________________

The sonnet starts with a common volta marker or, which is repeated at the beginning of line 3 to introduce the red herring.  The O! in the Petrarchan position marks a return to the opening lines, and the if in the Shakespearean/Spenserian position is another volta, moving to the point of the poem.  I’d say the doth in the final line is a final volta as well.  Another one in the afternoon!

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