<meta>

<name>John Addington <index>Symonds</index></name>

</author>

<title>The Sonnet (III)</title>

<source>Found this one on <uri>http://www.sonnets.org</uri>.</source>

<remark>This is Late High Victorian. Note the half-rhyme between <quote>disappears</quote> and <quote>hours</quote> in the couplet, and the hybrid form. Rhymes are tight, but not quite so tight as strict Petrarchan; quatrains are strong. The sestet runs an unconventional <label>a-b-b-c-a-c</label>, yet concludes with that half-rhyme. The theme, while dutifully taking up the tradition of reflecting on the sonnet form, is both reminiscent of Metaphysical conceits, and Victorian Science (spelled with capital <called>S</called>). <quote>Everlasting endless gyres</quote> brings Yeats to mind, but Symonds (though of Yeats's generation) wrote earlier than <worktitle>A Vision</worktitle>.</remark>

</meta>

<line>The Sonnet is a world, where feelings <rhyme on="a">caught</rhyme></line>

<line>In webs of phantasy, combine and <rhyme on="b">fuse</rhyme></line>

<line>Their kindred elements 'neath mystic <rhyme on="b">dews</rhyme></line>

<line>Shed from the ether round man's dwelling <rhyme on="a">wrought</rhyme>;</line>

</quatrain>

<line>Distilling heart's content, star-fragrance <rhyme on="a">fraught</rhyme></line>

<line>With influences from the breathing <rhyme on="c">fires</rhyme></line>

<line>Of heaven in everlasting endless <rhyme on="c">gyres</rhyme></line>

<line>Ending and encircling orbs of <rhyme on="a">thought</rhyme>.</line>

</quatrain>

</octave>

<line>Our Sonnet's world hath two fix'd <rhyme on="d">hemispheres</rhyme>:</line>

<line>This, where the sun with fierce strength <rhyme on="e">masculine</rhyme></line>

<line>Pours his keen rays and bids the noonday <rhyme on="e">shine</rhyme>;</line>

<line>That, where the moon and the stars, concordant <rhyme on="f">powers</rhyme>,</line>

</quatrain>

<line>Shed milder rays, and daylight <rhyme on="d">disappears</rhyme></line>

<line>In low melodious music of still <rhyme on="f">hours</rhyme>.</line>

</couplet>

</sestet>

</sonnet>

</sonneteer>