Sonnet: Dauntless

[honorat]

by Honorat

Summary: A Sonnet! For the Pirate poetry meme! I blame geek_mama_2 for bringing this to my attention. My last 10-page chapter "Night Passage" in “Aboard the Dauntless” summarized into fourteen lines. My very first Petrarchan sonnet with the volte coming after the octave. Do I ever feel Renaissancey!



Blindly, she flings her hull against the night,
Fragile wood, reckless of ravening stone.
A creature tormented, her timbers groan.
Close-hauled and heeling hard, daring this flight
Into oblivion, through head seas’ bite,
She claws the current’s threat. The dark waves moan
And dash her decks. A banshee wails—the lone
Wind knifes her canvas, stinging, like cold fright.
She shudders. But his calm hand on her wheel
Asks her to trust that with him she will swing
Through wind and thunder's roar. Soon will her keel
Caress calm waters, soft breezes will sing
In her white sails. “Hold on, love.” A bell’s peal,
Fierce as her own heart, this stranger’s words ring.

Comments

Re: A decent excuse to use this icon...

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Fixed-form poetry is very much not my usual style, but since this one, I've written several sonnets. My system is to start with a series of images that capture the scene and then look for words I like and make lists of rhymes. A rhyming dictionary would be of use, but I don't have one. The trouble with Petrarchan sonnets is that there are so many of the same rhyme. So the lists are helpful for finding sequences of words. I tried to keep them related to sailing. Then when I had my end words, I started trying to make lines that would lead to those words. It was rather complicated but fun. The iambic pentameter came after I had the phrases and it took me many edits since I have no rhythm.

I'm delighted that after all that it still had emotional impact! Thank you so much.