a certain indefinite number of Petrarchan sonnets (46)
Ordinarily I don’t publish so much poetry at Theoria-press, and instead try to provide mostly essays with an odd poem or sonnet occasionally interspersed among them. But the Muse’s visits have outstripped my ability to keep pace with prose pieces so readers who prefer essays should peruse the archives of this site, which are replete with them. This is an actual Petrarchan sonnet so it will not be preceded by my usual exculpatory disclaimer about having departed from the paradigmatic form.
BEFORE ever human lips pronounced my name
in molten seas born of primæval fire
that leap with scintillae of hot desire
my existence took its start in tongues of flame
before, creeping into this world, there came
the hand of darkness, death, and ire
by whose touch I felt the fluid life expire
in forms congeal, and ideal space a frame
assume, a circumferential bound
then partitions myriad were placed
as condensations of celestial sound
and primæval fire by physics was replaced
now sparks of lightning sheaths of ash impound
beneath a bushel hid and scarcely found
