Category Sonnet

Aug 14 2024

A Shakespearian sonnet

Hi everyone,

Some time ago I shared a sonnet to honor Ludwig van Beethoven. It was part of a manuscript that never found a home. I was one of three contributors to the failed effort. Once in a while I run across the collection of five that I wrote and have an urge to share them. So here’s another, this one about Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. There are a number of forms for the 14-line sonnet. This one is a Shakespearean version.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1840 - 1893
Russian Composer

Melodies stirred within his restless soul,
Not clerking, as his father thought was best.
His passion was a visionary’s goal
Of blending homeland music with the West. 
His genius musicality – a bold 
Consolidation of the old and new –
At first drew criticism arctic cold
From those held hard to Russian points of view.
But nothing triumphs over insults hurled
Like audiences roaring their delight,
Enthusiastic crowds across the world
Proclaiming that Tchaikovsky got it right.
The shy, prolific, brilliant, Russian son
Achieved what he’d so earnestly begun.

(c) 2017 David L Harrison, all rights reserved

This form of sonnet is comprised of three 4-line stanzas (quatrains)  and a concluding couplet. The rhyme scheme can be expressed like this. abab cdcd efef gg

Oct 3 2023

A sonnet

Hi everyone,

Today I’m posting a sonnet that was part of a failed manuscript a few years ago. Along with two others, I wrote several variations on the sonnet, and all were about famous composers. Here’s one about Ludwig van Beethoven. 

Ludwig van Beethoven

1770 – 1827
German pianist and composer
 
Inside himself he mutters down the street,
Conceiving symphonies he plans to write,
Ignoring food and bath another night,
Until he’s satisfied a work’s complete.
Sonatas, string quartets are Ludwig’s meat,
Signs of growing deaf his crippling plight,
Conquering piano his delight,
To be Vienna’s finest his conceit.
As stone abyss of silence seals his fate,
He still imagines music in his head,
Denies his genius leave to lie at rest.
Beethoven earns his place among the great.
While lesser talents might have quit, instead,
As sound retreats, he writes his ageless best.
 
(Petrarchan Sonnet)
 
End Note
 
The genius of Ludwig van Beethoven, born in Bonn, Germany, blossomed early. With his father as his teacher, Ludwig gave his first public performance at age seven and published his first music before age 13. His talent astonished all who heard him. By 14 he was playing the organ professionally, earning money his family sorely needed. He hit his stride at 20 and from then until shortly before his death at 57 produced a remarkable body of symphonies, concertos, sonatas, string quartets, a mass, and an opera, including Moonlight Sonata and his Fifth Symphony. Tragically, Ludwig’s hearing began diminishing in his twenties and would eventually fail altogether. Despite deafness and chronic abdominal pain, Ludwig became one of the most famous and influential composers of all time. Reportedly 20,000 people attended his funeral in Vienna, Austria. 

(c) David L Harrison, 2017

I don’t suppose anything will come of the collection. Editors who saw it found no compelling reason to publish the manuscript. Still, it was fun to write sonnets, which, by the way, come in a variety of constructions. I don’t think the effort was in vain. Trying something different now and then keeps our minds open to possibilities. And did you know that one sonnet contains as much calcium as an 8-ounce glass of milk? Okay, I made that part up.