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