Explaining My Own Gloomy Sonnet – Mad Chaos: February 3, 1999

Another Sonnet Is Born

This month once again has started to blossom early. Even though I am still in a negative form of my cycle (Hoping I once again didn’t get the calculations wrong but doing some of my own experimental calculations) I have but to these pages proudly admitted some loose poetry. Now I am to proudly admit here another Sonnet of form. Though it is irregular in respect to the better judgment of my mind I still find it presentable and thus shall incite these words here.

Before I do let me just warn all that my poetical juices weren’t flowing to full potential and that half of this poem was constructed on many different days and many given times. With this construction I feel that the best lines were produced within those urges in time and other pieces were just added onto these majestic lines to add character. Such is this Sonnet that is confused of explanation and correct wording. But, although there is no real plot to my Sonnet other than the regret of someone’s death and my emptiness and regretful nature afterwards, this Sonnet begs to be included.

Decoding the Heading

Before I recite this poem I will speak of the heading which are with the growing day and the aging of eternal time getting better and more expressive. The heading is ‘At death’s door, shall rain heavy these sapphire tears’. ‘At death’s door’ simply means you are on the verge of ending life and passing away. The ‘heavy tears’ that rain are of my sorrow and in this state of longing for what is dead I throw my grievous bribes (‘Sapphire’ being of wealth) at death’s door in hopes that he should not let that person walk into death’s door.

Thus, I am fighting with my tears for this person’s life and for him to live but as the rest of the poem admits, the person’s life (Considering a female) was rather harsh. This Sonnet to my regard indicates that a lady was a forbidden and found out mistress and the lover still loved but grieved in repent. Thus with this small understanding and explanation of the poem let us begin. I am that I am in this world of mine and thus this world shall bring forth poetry…

The Sonnet Itself

At death’s door, shall rain heavy these sapphire tears,

Your grave earnings shall be the death of me,

To be off in part and partly offered,

And shall this pit bear the basest you be,

Where basest has gone to earth’s grime sundered.

Meadows and Whispers

Let these meadows and greens be your headstone,

That breathes still through this mound your spirit’s tear,

These woes, let I speak in such a bemoan,

Say ‘t now, save I know, ‘tis absent thy ear.

A Kiss Against the World

With your lips, I shall kiss the world away,

And with these lips, I shall away earth’s kiss,

Zephyr’s sigh, shall love’s day to winter’s day,

And anon this heart, for your love shall miss,

Stand sparse I from thee, but farthest art thou,

That Farewelled this harsh world, raised not a brow,

Setting the Scene

A tragedy if I must say so myself, this newest Sonnet. Now that I have had time to read upon it and make sense of my mind’s production I am here but now to explain it. Firstly let me set the possible scene. A fair lady, who wears black for her adultery is dying for her sins, by poisoning or some other sort. There she is in her adulterer’s hands and for the fleeting moments where she is between death and life is where these poetical lines form.

Clutched by her lover he speaks of how much her death (1.1) will also kill him inside. Literally speaking, the pain of seeing his loved one pass away before him will wound him emotionally. ‘Shall be the death of me’ also implies that without her he is nothing but a nameless soul, dead to the world. ‘grave earnings’ is a pun to the word ‘grave’ in the sense that it means serious and dangerous earnings that in turn would calculate on the ‘grave’ pun as being her burial ground.

‘To be off in part’ (1.2) means that with her dying she will be forever gone. Another expression would be to say that her spirit had risen and gone to heaven while the basest of her (1.3) being her bones and flesh were buried in a grave. ‘Partly offered’ means that the death that came with her passing was also partly passed onto the living and loving who was but holding her to the death.

Like a disease the man was partly dead emotionally and in much of a somber state for that. Where the basest (1.4) being the corpse has gone to the earth for burial the body separates from the spirit which in the sundering leaves for heaven. It has been widely written and believed that the human body is only a medium for our spirits to control. Our essence controls this vehicle and after the body dies of age the spirit moves on.

Meadows Instead of Marble

The meadows, the grass, the trees and anything that has source to the ground and dirt underneath (1.5) shall be the headstone for the grave. By this line it signifies that a proper burial is not in order and that is further backed up by the fact that the lady (Of supposed Medieval times) was shunned of a proper burial because of her adultery that she paid dearly for with her death. By the fifth line in the Sonnet the stages of her death have come to a conclusion and with the next lines forth comes recognition of her death and melancholy for that fact.

Line (1.5) has a deeper meaning for having meadows and all that is green to be the headstone. This matter of plant life will live on much longer than a tombstone or her rotting remains long after her last rites. Therefor, like time and Shakespeare’s depiction of love always growing fonder, these meadows will always rewrite such as their headstone with the changing of time’s emotions. Love was so grand (And also forbidden) that a headstone with an inscription would not speak of the all but the continual growth and change of the meadow and the renewed life of such was seen as an ever-changing epitaph.

The meadows and grass are also a significant factor in her ongoing spiritual life (1.6). To say she was buried in a pit (Opposed to a normal grave) she would be one with the soil and connected to the roots of this grass and these trees, she will once again breathe as the trees do breathe oxygen (representing her life). ‘Your spirits tear’ signifies that she is shamed for her wrong doing and for that her spirit cries and still suffers but now rests peacefully.

Woes Spoken Too Late

Such is the sadness that comes with death and the ‘woes’ that I speak of in (1.7) represents the adultery and speaks of matters he thought not to share with his deceased love as it would hurt her. Now, the troubled problems that were forthcoming were too late to share as they had taken their toll.

Thus, he expresses his sorrow ‘In such a bemoan’ and he shares it with her even though he knows that she has passed away in his hands (1.8). ‘‘Tis absent thy ear’ simply means that she can’t hear him anymore because she has passed away but in his wailing and late arrival to find her dying he thought to tell her the trouble in despair.

A Kiss to Say Goodbye

Thus, now dead but still in his hands (and given to the earth) he kisses her lips (1.9) and with that he kisses his ‘world’ away, his world being his dying love. Also, in her perspective, he is kissing her lips and thus with her lips, she shall ‘Kiss the world away’ meaning she will say goodbye to the world with that last parting kiss.

On the other hand when he speaks of his own lips (1.10) he will still kiss her upon death but he hopes that it will be a kiss of life of sorts. The noble man is hoping that the just deceased lover will come back to life with a case and in turn, stay her away from ‘Earth’s kiss’ being earth swallowing her deceased life. Another meaning would be to state that with that kiss the man thought minutely of his own suicide but for a better judgment he chose against ‘Earth’s kiss’ himself.

Zephyr Sighs Softly

Zephyr in (1.11) is actually the wind that comes from the west and it is usually slow, soft and gentle. Zephyrus is also the god of the Western Wind and with his sigh it relates to another poem of wind being sad whenever we are. Zephyr sighs as it softly blows upon my skin and like a second wind had caught him, he knew that his love had been lost.

‘Shall loves day to winter’s day’ simply means the days of his loving have now been taken over and slowly they with Zephyr’s winds will blow away into winter’s day, harsh realization. Gradually his days will get more omitted of her love and because of this distance that grows fonder, his heart (1.12) will after a short time miss her love.

Raising Not a Brow

Even though I am very close to your body (Either still holding onto her new death or simply six feet on top of her grave) you are the furthest you can possibly be from me (1.13). In simplistic terms I am just trying to get across that her spirit has headed off to heaven and all that he holds onto is her medium, her cadaver. ‘The harsh world’ in line (1.14) is seen in this way by the both of them as it had poisoned her for loving one that was already loved.

Her farewell to the ‘harsh world’ was seen is depicted as her being as uncaring to the uncaring world. To say she ‘Raised not a brow’ is to say she wasn’t surprised and once again, she didn’t care for the harsh world’s decision. Thus, she went out with dignity and did not raise her brow in complaint or disgust but rather, she had seen it coming. To those medieval days adultery was very punishable and I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the short end of the stick.