John Mullin

Some Sonnets John Mullin

A sonnet, well-crafted and well written, is fourteen lines of beauty and sheer (unadulterated) power! While, to write one and instinctively know you have 'nailed' it is nothing less than bliss, be it ecstasy, for the creator who is led to compose this classical form of poetic expression. Furthermore, it would often seem that the first eight lines (octave) must set the stage for the remaining six (sestet) where the plot is revealed in such a way as to surpass the original thought behind it. As if the final outcome overwhelms the initial intent through the revelation of something quite intangible, beyond the capability of the conscious mind - greatly limited in obscure, arcane and esoteric matters as, indeed, it is. A sonnet, classically constructed, should appear in one of the two forms faithfully followed over the centuries. The Shakespearean, or English, version allows for a somewhat simpler rhyming pattern than the Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet which requires a four-line rhyme not once but twice in those first eight lines. What sounds a bit complicated is really quite simple from a practical point of view and thus, on this subject, we will say no more! It is in the reading, which even now awaits, rather than the writing, which by now is done, that leads the poet's mind to wonder if that same bliss, or ecstasy, will strike the reader as it struck the writer? Perhaps it's just a few, or (God forbid) but one, which plucks a secret string, stirs some hidden (cherished) chord, long-buried in that deepest recess of the heart - where all things bitter-sweet most surely lie. We have chosen 110 sonnets in total - 50 earlier works and 60 later - to fill this collection. No magic formulae were applied but good numbers they seemed to be, at least to begin with. If you should like them, at least 'some sonnets', we can put together 'some more sonnets' at a later date, another place in time, for your purest reading pleasure.