Book details

  • Genre:poetry
  • Sub-genre:American / General
  • Language:English
  • Pages:112
  • Paperback ISBN:9798350974812

The Wild Sonnets: Volume VII (601-700)

By Nicholas Korn

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Overview

The seventh book in The Wild Sonnets series.

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Description

REVIEW:
Nicholas Korn has undertaken an ambitious project in his ‘Wild Sonnets’ poem sequence. It is also a surprisingly original project, given the long history of the sonnet form. Korn is highly skilled at metaphor-making, demonstrating what Aristotle once wrote of this ability in his “Poetics” — that it is the mark of genius, and the most important feature of good imaginative writing.​

Korn’s work is a masterclass in poetical conceits and unfurling ideas through imagery. I highly recommend the ‘Wild Sonnets’ series by one of the leading lyric poets of our time.

– Andrew Benson Brown | Host of Classical Poets Live




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About The Author

Nicholas Korn is a poet, playwright, filmmaker and composer. The first volume of Wild Sonnets was published in June 2018, with the second following in October 2019. Mr. Korn has since published a new volume of 100 Wild Sonnets every year.

His stage play, Delirium's Daughters, was featured Off-Broadway in 2015, and his film, Revel's Rivals, won the award for Best Animated Feature at the 2012 Louisville International Festival of Film. As an artist, he combines classicism with a curiosity for all things digital – honoring equally the tradition and the trend. He lives in the Greater Cincinnati area. For more on the Wild Sonnets, visit www.wildsonnets.com.

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Book Reviews

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Andrew Benson
An Ambitious and Original Poetry Project Nicholas Korn has undertaken an ambitious project in his ‘Wild Sonnets’ poem sequence. It is also a surprisingly original project, given the long history of the sonnet form. Korn has invented a new sonnet form which may in time—like in the cases of Petrarch, Shakespeare, and Spenser—come to be known as a ‘Kornian’ sonnet. The structure of a Kornian sonnet is as follows: 14 lines divided into two equal sections of 7 (as opposed to the 8 and 6 of Petrarch). The opening section presents the theme of the poem, and the closing section responds. Meter is irregular; lines are sometimes iambic, but often not. There are often 5 beats to a line, but not always—there may be 4 or 6. While each section concludes with a couplet, the other lines do not regularly have end rhymes, though occasionally they do. Internal rhymes, both perfect and near, will often occur. Korn also uses alliteration and assonance heavily in a way that is tightly controlled. The irregular nature of a Kornian sonnet may make it more difficult to strictly imitate than a Shakespearean or Petrarchan sonnet. Perhaps this is Korn’s point—no one is quite the same as another. With the publication of Volume VII (601–700), Korn now has 700 of these poems under his belt, which is about twice the number of poems collected in Petrarch’s Canzoniere. He has no intention of stopping anytime soon. Each poem is titled with a number. These are not the lovelorn sonnets that Petrarch and Shakespeare wrote, which have become the standard fare of this form. Korn tackles a wide variety of themes, not divided into sections. While he may have had some hidden intention in organizing his poems the way he does, there is not an overt logical structure to their organization. Conventional wisdom cites that a person should begin a poem with an idea in mind. Korn confided to me that this is not how he operates. The opening of poem 672 gives an insight into his practice: Portents and pretense—both came to me Swimming like fish to feeding—first on the surface Nothing, then random and ripple, all nibble And needing. I cast what rustling crumbs I have Onto the pooling patience of my memory: My parents’ house, the dancing maid I missed, The imperfect work to which I still persist. One can see how the lovely alliterative phrase “Portents and pretense” simmered in Korn’s mind and provided him with the kindling for a poem, which then grew into a fire as he developed this literary kernel into an idea. What follows in the imagery of the feeding fish—“first on the surface / Nothing, then random and ripple”—might be a good metaphor for how Korn’s brain seems to operate in the writing process, in which the poet casts “rustling crumbs” on the “pooling patience” of memory. Korn is highly skilled at metaphor-making, demonstrating what Aristotle once wrote of this ability in his “Poetics”—that it is the mark of genius, and the most important feature of good imaginative writing. Korn’s response to the first stanza of sonnet 672 develops his theme through more water imagery: But from the retrograde and grievance of the past, I unanchor from the deep and into the ocean’s Distance drift away. What more of home do these Sad limbs of mine require but this lonely And tilting ship? What mistress more do my nights Desire than the silken stars that harem in the black? What perfection more than the intent to not turn back? Beginning on the surface, we now proceed into the depths as the poet drifts out to sea in his “lonely / And tilting ship.” Korn’s work is a masterclass in poetical conceits and unfurling ideas through imagery. Korn has a YouTube channel of the same name where he reads two of these poems once a week. It is a great way to bring poetry to the masses. Nevertheless, reading these highly meditative poems in paperback form offers advantages that elude those of video and modern technology. I highly recommend the ‘Wild Sonnets’ series by one of the leading lyric poets of our time. Read more