Sonnenizio on a Line from Yeats
An aged man is but a paltry thing.
An aged woman, on the other hand,
Has no time to be paltry like her man.
She’s coaxing fire to make the kettle sing.
She fries the sausages and sets the forks.
He sighs his own obituary, then dozes,
Dreaming of imperishable roses.
Real roses must be pruned. She gets to work.
The old man has his legacy to tend;
He mourns his fading powers with aching heart.
Her hands ache with arthritis, but she’s smart
And takes an aspirin; she has socks to mend.
Byzantine sage, enough of fiery gold!
The real trick’s being too busy to get old.
by Catherine Rogers
Editor’s Note: Feminism isn’t always loud and badass. Sometimes it’s spoken with a quiet voice, while quiet hands mend this arthritic world.
Love the sonnet, but it’s not a Sonnenizio. In a Sonnenizio, one word from the borrowed (first) line is repeated in each of the succeeding 13 lines — as in Kim’s original, which uses the word “part” in every line: http://cakespeare.tumblr.com/post/52361514656/kim-addonizio-sonnenizio-on-a-line-from-drayton.
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Love the sonnet, but it’s not a Sonnenizio. In a Sonnenizio, one word from the borrowed (first) line is repeated in each of the succeeding 13 lines, — as in Kim Addonizio’s “Sonnenizio on a Line From Drayton,” in which the word “part” occurs in every line: http://cakespeare.tumblr.com/post/52361514656/kim-addonizio-sonnenizio-on-a-line-from-drayton.
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