Both Uses
sonnet
in
A Gentleman in Moscow
(Edited)
- But this much I know:
It is not lost among the autumn leaves on Peter's Square.
It is not among the ashes in the Athenaeum ash cans.
It is not inside the blue pagodas of your fine Chinoiserie.
It is not in Vronsky's saddlebags;
Not in Sonnet XXX, stanza one;
Not on twenty-seven red ….
Where
Is It Now?p. 1.8sonnet = poem of a particular form - Oh, and should it ever come up, you and Professor Sirovich had a lengthy debate on the future of the sonnet.
p. 348.5 *
Definitions:
-
(1)
(sonnet) a poem consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme schemeAs an example, here is Shakespeare's 17th Sonnet:
Who will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?
Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say 'This poet lies:
Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.'
So should my papers yellow'd with their age
Be scorn'd like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage
And stretched meter of an antique song:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice; in it and in my rhyme. - (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)