120 Schoolboyish Petrarchan Sonnets

The aforementioned schoolboyish aspect of the entire collection should not at all detract from a sense that a sonnet can be very narrow and also highly ornate. The various individual examples may seem to veer here, there, and practically everywhere in terms of possible 'meanings'; meanwhile, each sonnet may be in strict keeping or almost strict keeping with the apparently preferred formulaics of John Keats and of the sprung-rhythm 'master' Gerard Manley Hopkins.

" SOME FORESTS Some forests must be rich and lovely parts
of earthly wishes for a wondrous day
whose every moment soon might seem to say
kind words that speak of splendor that restarts.
Implicit in a wooded world are charts
on which might seem to thrive a fine array
of plants and animals that surely pay
obeisances eclipsing human arts.
Endangered though all forests now must seem,
a great resilience rules what Nature is
till wondrousness will not go up in steam.
Perfection forms an adamantine fizz
permitting anything to form a dream
in which a million shadows dart and whiz." Less