Monday, August 25, 2014

Poem of the Day: "Sonnet in Search of an Author" by William Carlos Williams, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poem of the Day for August 24, 2014 is "Sonnet in Search of an Author" by William Carlos Williams, Poet of the Month.  The poem was taken from Pictures from Brueghel (1962).  The text of the poem may be found here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/248444.  A brief biography of Williams and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"Sonnet in Search of an Author" is a satire of the traditional love sonnet as evidenced by, among other things, use of the word "odor" instead of the more romantic "fragrance" or "scent."  The narrator, presumably the poet, laments that a sonnet could be made of the conceit of wood or woodland odors as metaphor for body odor while all the while actually composing a fourteen-line poem (or sonnet of sorts) upon the subject.

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