[Chris O'Carroll]

Sonnet deleted for publication. Thanks to all who took an interest in it.

[Royston Vasey]

Hi Chris,

Only prose discussion of the topic is welcome at that forum, which leaves this one for verse musings on Hill's mastery.

Good idea.

I noticed a minor slip in your Big Dog - S3 L1's "Four" should surely read 'Three.'


Go well.

[Mary McLean]

Love it! 'Alpha barkin' is inspired. As for me....

I’d parody my learned colleague’s verse,
But sadly I would need to read some first.

[Brian Allgar]

Very Silly Sonnet

Two fat snails
Run a race;
Slimy trails
Mark the place.
When the judge
Fires his gun,
Will they budge?
Yes, they run
Round the bend,
Down the straight.
Near rhe end,
Will is late.
xxPetrarch slows ...
xxShakespeare goes!

[Brian Allgar]

Expended spirit is a waste of shame
(Did Will say that, or was it Chris O’Carroll?)
If all you get’s a Shakespeare sonnet, lame
And treacherous as shooting fish in a barrel.

For lighter verse, old Will’s acquired a name,
And if he sticks to bones that turn to coral,
Or bees that suck, he’s master of the game;
But when it comes to sonnets, we must quarrel.

However did those scribblings win such fame?
Such silly stuff, poetically immoral,
Can only meet opprobrium and blame -
Yet one there is, deserving of the laurel:

xxAll proper poets sneer; their faces darken
xxWhen shown a sonnet other than Petrarchan.

[Brian Allgar]

From General Talk: A Challenge

"Raymond Queneau wrote 100 trillion sonnets. No joke."

A hundred trillion sonnets

A hundred trillion sonnets written down
In next to no time, neatly underlined.
I hear you gasp with disbelief; you frown
And wonder if I’ve lost my tiny mind.

A hundred trillion sonnets in a flash -
How is it possible? I hear you ask,
And why would I be so insanely rash
As to embark on such a monstrous task?

How could I claim to do it in a second?
What folly led me even to begin it?
I’ll tell you. When at first the idea beckoned,
I knew it wouldn't take me half a minute

xxTo write the part that’s absolutely vital:
xx“A hundred trillion sonnets” - what a title!

[Douglas G. Brown]

(Being a cynophobe, I avoid dogs, and have only witnessed canine copulation once. That was between two mongrels in the middle of a busy highway in a a slummy neighborhood - more frantic than silly. I had no idea that various breeds had stlyistic differences. Apparently Mr. Hill has made detailed studies of this subject. Suspecting that he dislikes limericks, I submit the following.)

Geoffrey Hill Lampoons the Limerick

The Limerick seldom is frilly.
It’s inclined to be bawdy or silly;
Mere doggerel verse,
More depraved and perverse
Than a Newfoundland mounting a filly.

[Royston Vasey]

Without Prejudice

'Petrarch's the pill,' Sir Geoffrey Hill? -
You posit to your bent
That with conclusion comes preclusion:
Further thought is spent.

To presuppose that one turn shows
Its form is always best
Is but conclusion and delusion
Via subjectiveness.

[Chris O'Carroll]

Hormonal bantamweights,
Jack Russell terriers
Mounting each other in
Search of a thrill,

Serve to embody the
Anti-Shakespearean
Sonnet ukase of the
Fool on the hill.

[Douglas G. Brown]

I do not like thee, Dr. Hill;
A bitch in heat’s my greatest thrill.
I lie in wait - but soon, I will
Arise to bite thee, Dr. Hill.