Australian (Bowlesian) Sonnet Explorative Challenge

  • Robert Gardiner
    10 years ago

    Australian (Bowlesian) Sonnet Explorative Challenge...

    Hi Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to the Australian Sonnet;

    Bowlesian Sonnet or Australian Sonnet is attributed to English poet, William Lisle Bowles (1762 -1850) whose book of 14 sonnets published in 1789 was heralded for its "simple sincerity" and expression of thought through appreciation for life and nature. His works carried a tender tone and have been described as melodious.Although Bowles was English and probably never travelled to Australia, his sonnets did. The honesty and serenity of his poems struck a chord in what was then England's penal colony and the form was eventually adopted by the Aussies as their own. Poet's Garret tells this story better than I. The defining features of the Bowlesian Sonnet are:

    Australian Sonnet or Bowlesian Sonnet:Creator William Lisle Bowles;

    1) Three Envelope quatrains and a couplet.
    2) 14 lines.
    3) tetrameter or pentameter or similar. 8 or 10 syllables.
    4) Rhyme Scheme: a-b-b-a c-d-d-c e-f-f-e g-g

    Examples:

    On hearing the Bells at Sea
    by William Lisle Bowles 1789

    How sweet the tuneful bells' responsive peal!
    As when at opening dawn the fragrant breeze
    Touches the trembling sense of pale disease,
    So piercing to my heart their force I feel.
    And hark! with lessening cadence now they fall,
    And now along the white and level tide
    They fling their melancholy music wide;
    Bidding me many a tender thought recall
    Of summer days, and those delightful years
    When by my native streams, in life's fair prime,
    The mournful magic of their mingling chime
    First waked my wondering childhood into tears!
    But seeming now, when all those days are o'er,
    The sounds of joy once heard and heard no more.

    Madness

    Am I forever holding back on my dreams,.
    Scared to step out into the world again.
    Lest I realise the world like me's insane,.
    Realising all things with love are as it seems?.
    Today's one more of waiting, and of abstinence.
    Tomorrow will be the same until we meet.
    Then time will pass again on winged feet.
    And again sneer at our human impertinence..
    Lovers who dare to wish and hope for more.
    A simple wish that they were not to part.
    Without hesitation have given their heart.
    Despite past experience have chosen to ignore.
    For certain love cannot ever be ignored.
    And in given time that is the real reward..

    Ryter Roethicle

    "O Time! who know'st a lenient hand to lay"
    William Lisle Bowles (1762-1850)

    O Time! who know'st a lenient hand to lay
    Softest on sorrow's wound, and slowly thence,
    Lulling to sad repose the weary sense,
    The faint pang stealest unperceived away;
    On thee I rest my only hope at last,
    And think, when thou hast dried the bitter tear
    That flows in vain o'er all my soul held dear,
    I may look back on every sorrow past,
    And meet life's peaceful evening with a smile;
    As some lone bird, at day's departing hour,
    Sings in the sunbeam, of the transient shower
    Forgetful, though its wings are wet the while:
    Yet ah! how much must that poor heart endure,
    Which hopes from thee, and thee alone, a cure!

  • Robert Gardiner
    10 years ago

    Ivette, Such Rapture, On Me, You Bestow...
    (Australian/Bowlesian Sonnet )

    Ivette, Such Rapture, On Me, You Bestow.
    You Play, With Ecstasy, Upon, My Soul.
    Amongst, Your Presence, In Heaven, I Stroll
    In Rhapsody, You Leave Me, Ever So

    Such Bliss, You Bellow, As Nothing Before.
    Your Siren Song, It Calls Me, Ever Fourth.
    I'm Drawn, To You, Like A Compass, Due North.
    No Bewitchment, Out There, Such As, Your Lure.

    No Such Wonderment, As That You've Given
    Sublime, The Delight, By You, I'm Left In
    Your Magic, Splendor, Leaves Me, Reveling.
    No Pleasure, Out There, Such As, Your Heaven.

    Intoxicated, So, I Am, By You,
    Exhilarated By, Your Every Hue...

    Rhyme Scheme: ABBA CDDC EFFE GG

    Robert Gardiner
    R.G.Love

    http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/misc/poems.php?id=1236347

  • Everlasting
    10 years ago

    Thanks for introducing this type of sonnet Robert.

    I like the one called "Madness" the most.