Change of pace :)

Just one sonnet today:  I’m driving to Ann Arbor to get my daughter for the weekend  J 

___________________________________

CXXII

  Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain

  Full character'd with lasting memory,

  Which shall above that idle rank remain,

  Beyond all date; even to eternity:

  Or, at the least, so long as brain and heart

  Have faculty by nature to subsist;

  Till each to raz'd oblivion yield his part

  Of thee, thy record never can be miss'd.

  That poor retention could not so much hold,

  Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score;

  Therefore to give them from me was I bold,

  To trust those tables that receive thee more:

    To keep an adjunct to remember thee

    Were to import forgetfulness in me.

___________________________________

The inversions in the first quatrain are subtle eyeball kicks  J  And the or at the beginning of the second quatrain reminds me of the following:

___________________________________

God’s Love

By Vikram Seth

God loves us all, I’m pleased to say—

Or those who love Him, anyway—

Or those who love Him and are good—

Or so they say.  Or so He should.

___________________________________

The volta is the were at the beginning of the final line, introducing the paradox that is the point of the poem.  More tomorrow  J