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Big Dog

Petrarchan sonnets are better than Shakespearean.  There is a treachery inherent in making the whole organic point of a poem come to fruition in an ending couplet. It’s silly, like two Jack Russell’s [sic] mating.
Geoffrey Hill, quoted in the Cambridge University student newspaper Varsity

The word has come down from the lofty Hill:
Write like Francesco; scorn to write like Will,
Whose structure is an exercise in treachery,
As risible as tiny canine lechery.
An argument constructed eight-and-six
Is worthier, like dogs with bigger dicks.
The octave-sestet form keeps things complex,
Like love poems all about not having sex.
Three quatrains and a couplet?  That’s just silly.
When Shakespeare dipped his silly sonnet quill, he
Expended shameful spirit in fruition
Beneath a Mercian maestro’s recognition.
  So hearken to Sir Geoffrey’s alpha barkin’,
  Ye bards of doggy style - keep it Petrarchan.

Chris O'Carroll
If you have any comments on this poem,  Chris O'Carroll  would be pleased to hear from you.

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