Homework September 2023 - Onslaught of Spring
Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 4:42 pm
Greetings All
Well, it seems that September has been and gone without me noticing! We've been away on a caravan trip for a number of weeks, followed by a houseguest - and here it is, October!
So I've missed the September homework deadline - but that won't stop me! Coincidentally, I've just written a poem about Spring - so, even though it doesn't specifically include the prompts, I'm submitting it as my homework anyway. It is a Spenserian sonnet - that intriguing interlocking rhyme scheme ABABBCBCCDCDEE, written in iambic pentameter, with a change of thought at the ninth line, and a final "clincher" couplet. Named for Edmund Spenser (Shakespeare's contemporary).
As to the subject - well, with an explosive start to Spring here (storms, cold, heat, wind), I'm setting a cat among the pigeons in my lament for what I remember as the gentler Springs of my youth (or is my memory deceiving me??)
ONSLAUGHT OF SPRING
(c) Shelley Hansen 2023
When I was young, the Spring brought rhythmic flow
of warmth to banish Winter’s dreary cold.
The days grew longer, pausing to bestow
their blessing on the fields of green and gold.
In nests above, new living would unfold
as parent birds made music in the trees.
And so it was, before my eyes grew old.
I cherished breaths of Spring on days like these.
But now it seems no pleading may appease
the anger of the season’s sudden storms,
when bursts of heat are followed by a freeze
and grass, attacked by drying winds, transforms.
The earth is restless. Gentleness departs
and mirrors turbulence of human hearts.
Well, it seems that September has been and gone without me noticing! We've been away on a caravan trip for a number of weeks, followed by a houseguest - and here it is, October!
So I've missed the September homework deadline - but that won't stop me! Coincidentally, I've just written a poem about Spring - so, even though it doesn't specifically include the prompts, I'm submitting it as my homework anyway. It is a Spenserian sonnet - that intriguing interlocking rhyme scheme ABABBCBCCDCDEE, written in iambic pentameter, with a change of thought at the ninth line, and a final "clincher" couplet. Named for Edmund Spenser (Shakespeare's contemporary).
As to the subject - well, with an explosive start to Spring here (storms, cold, heat, wind), I'm setting a cat among the pigeons in my lament for what I remember as the gentler Springs of my youth (or is my memory deceiving me??)
ONSLAUGHT OF SPRING
(c) Shelley Hansen 2023
When I was young, the Spring brought rhythmic flow
of warmth to banish Winter’s dreary cold.
The days grew longer, pausing to bestow
their blessing on the fields of green and gold.
In nests above, new living would unfold
as parent birds made music in the trees.
And so it was, before my eyes grew old.
I cherished breaths of Spring on days like these.
But now it seems no pleading may appease
the anger of the season’s sudden storms,
when bursts of heat are followed by a freeze
and grass, attacked by drying winds, transforms.
The earth is restless. Gentleness departs
and mirrors turbulence of human hearts.
