COMMENT BY CATHY CHANDLER: This is the sonnet that arrived in our emailbox at exactly 11:59 p.m. Quelle chance! A hybrid sonnet as far as form goes, using a mix of perfect and slant rhyme, the poem begins with a despairing command, “Surrender now”, followed by a detailed list of vivid images and metaphors pointing to the linden trees’ sure demise. However, by the time we reach line 14, the narrator wishes to be proven wrong, and thus the “pale green flags” of hope. The only word I had a little trouble swallowing was “morn” — it is so “poetical” — but its undertone of possible and indeed probable, mourning came through to me. I also found line 6 quite bumpy. The enjambment between lines 9 and 10 is inspired.
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