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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE AGILE SONNETEER by EDWARD ROWLAND SILL

First Line: HOW FACILE 'TIS TO FRAME THE SONNET! SEE
Last Line: "LACKS SOMETHING?"" OH, AS USUAL, BUT A THOUGHT."

HOW facile 't is to frame the sonnet! See:
An "apt alliteration" at the start;
Phrase fanciful, turned t'other-end-to with art;
And then a rhyme makes first and fourth agree.
Ee words enough -- so this next quatrain we
Will therefore rhyme to match. Here sometimes "heart"
Comes in, as "hot" or "throbbing" to impart
A tang of sentiment to our idee.
Then the sextette, wherein there strictly ought
To be a kind of winding up of things;
Only two rhymes (to have it nicely wrought)
On which it settles, lark-like, as it sings.
And so 't is perfect, head and tail and wings.
"Lacks something?" Oh, as usual, but a thought.



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