The sonnet is a form of poetry | a | ||||
ringing in English since the Renaissance | b | ||||
courtiers renewed our verse with this jouissance | b | ||||
of rhyme and macaronic melody: | a | ||||
5 |
an octave (these eight lines) is followed by | a | |||
a shift in tone, or theme, in a sestet, | c | ||||
never but lining hope with fond regret, | c | ||||
never but linking words in rhymery. | a | ||||
So to a form, when electric words grow quick | d | ||||
10 |
in newfound power as code, compiled and freed | e | |||
to answer with dispatch any answerable need, | e | ||||
they drive a counting machine to draw in strict | d | ||||
straight lines the formal frames half-hidden there, | f | ||||
inside sings out: sunshine in stained-glass prayer. | f | ||||
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