A Calendar of Sonnets: October
The month of carnival of all the year,
When Nature lets the wild earth go its way,
And spend whole seasons on a single day.
The spring-time holds her white and purple dear;
October, lavish, flaunts them far and near;
The summer charily her reds doth lay
Like jewels on her costliest array;
October, scornful, burns them on a bier.
The winter hoards his pearls of frost in sign
Of kingdom: whiter pearls than winter knew,
Oar empress wore, in Egypt's ancient line,
October, feasting 'neath her dome of blue,
Drinks at a single draught, slow filtered through
Sunshiny air, as in a tingling wine!
Helen Hunt Jackson
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4 comments:
The word "oar" should be "o'er"
The use of oar instead of o'er is not a mistake as she does use o'er in another poem. Her poetic liberty is confined by standard verse form but is using words to allude to other images of whole ideas in a translitteration that works well with the messages she is trying to convery. Since she was a native american missionary and activist her use of poetry to express herself merges the two causes and herself in a personal way. I like her deliberate (mis)spellings to capture the dreams that she chases. -Quentin of Va.
isn't confined by standard verse form
The word "oar" should be "or".
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