The aim of this blog is to serve as a meeting point to those who study or have studied English philology and, more broadly, to all those who love literature and language.

18 Nov 2008

SONNETS

Sonnet Central is a website devoted to sonnets in English. Among other features such as a large collection of poems organised according to the alphabetical list of their authors' names or a battle of sonnets which allows the reader to vote for their winner, you can also access a section on sonnets about sonnets (does the word metasonnet exist?). So far my only reference to something similar had been Lope de Vega’s “Soneto de repente”

When browsing through the choice of poems in that section, I’ve come across ‘Enigma’ by Edgar Allan Poe:

"Seldom we find," says Solomon Don Dunce,
"Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet.
Through all the flimsy things we see at once
As easily as through a
Naples bonnet —
Trash of all trash! — how can a lady don it?
Yet heavier far than your Petrarchan stuff—
Owl-downy nonsense that the faintest puff
Twirls into trunk-paper the while you con it."
And, veritably, Sol is right enough.
The general Petrarchanities are arrant
Bubbles — ephemeral and so transparent —
But this is, now, — you may depend upon it —
Stable, opaque, immortal — all by dint
Of the dear names that lie concealed within 't.

Unable to find out the clue, I’ve searched the Internet for a little longer and read it HERE

2 comments:

  1. Very interesting!

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  2. Muy bonito el sitio. Claro que Poe tuvo suerte de que su amiga tuviese catorce letras en el nombre.

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