Wreathed and Unwreathed Sonnets
Wreathed poetry is simply a natural blending of English poetry with the Celtic Welsh. Its creator George Herbert was born into a wealthy artistic family in Wales and later was educated in Trinity College, Cambridge and was unpublished until after his death. It is believed that his poem A Wreath was inspired by the Welsh form Englyn cryrch which uses an internal rhyme scheme with an external one. Remembering that Herbert was formerly an accademic and would have been aware of the sonnet, but it would not be formalised during Herberts lifetime and so in The Wreath he gives his own version of the sonnet:
A Wreath
A Wreathed garland of deserved praise,
Of praise deserved, unto thee I give,
I give to thee, who knowest all my wayes,
My crooked winding wayes, wherein I live,
Wherein I die, not live: for life is straight,
Straight as a line, and ever tends to thee,
To thee, who art more farre above deceit,
Then deceit seems above simplicitie.
Give me simplicitie, that I may live,
So live and like, that I may know, thy wayes,
Know them and practise them: then shall I give
For this poore wreath, give thee a crown of praise.
from The Temple (1633) by George Herbert
The sonnet sometimes considered to consist of an Octave, and a Sestet, both as well as having a standard rhyming form but also possesing internal rhymes.
The octave in reality is two Quatrains linked by the internal rhyme, and similarly the sestet
If the octave is linked to the sestet by an internal rhyme, then it should be presented as a fourteen (14) line poem, and if not then as an eight (8), six (6). Like the Petrarch sonnet, no meter would have been set, so that is left to the discretion of the poet. The basic form is thus:
x. x. x. x. x. x. x. a.
x. a. x. x. x. x. x. b.
x. b. x. x. x. x. x. a.
x. a. x. x. x. x. x. b.
x. b. x. x. x. x. x. c.
x. c. x. x. x. x. x. d.
x. d. x. x. x. x. x. c.
x. c. x. x. x. x. x. d.
x. x. x. x. x. x. x. e.
x. e. x. x. x. x. x. f.
x. b. x. x. x. x. x. e.
x. e. x. x. x. x. x. b.
x. b. x. x. x. x. x. e.
x. e. x. x. x. x. x. f.
Here is an example of that form
Moonlight’s Glow
The nights I touch the moon’s pure light
and bathe in starlight to wait your kiss.
Your lover’s kiss that starts my flight,
and fly the skies of passion’s bliss.
The blissful thoughts that fill my days,
the endless days we are apart,
The parting mists reveal the haze,
in hazy dreams, I give my heart.
A token heart, my lover’s oath,
my oath of honour made to you
to see your smile reflect the moon
In moonlight’s glow, there lies love’s growth
and grow as one in all that’s true,
The truth of love our sacred tune.
Sarah Rayburn
Another alternative is simply three Quatrains and a Couplet. with or without internal links Un-wreath Poetry
The same rules apply to the Un- wreath sonnet as the previous wreath forms, you will also notice in this one, the sestet has been linked to the octave. Here is the basic rhyme scheme:
x. b. x. x. x. x. x. a.
x. a. x. x. x. x. x. b.
x. b. x. x. x. x. x. a.
x. c. x. x. x. x. x. b.
x. d. x. x. x. x. x. c.
x. c. x. x. x. x. x. d.
x. d. x. x. x. x. x. c.
x. f. x. x. x. x. x. d.
x. e. x. x. x. x. x. f.
x. f. x. x. x. x. x. e.
x. e. x. x. x. x. x. f.
x. f. x. x. x. x. x. e.
x. e. x. x. x. x. x. f.
x. x. x. x. x. x. x. e.
A purist might insist that both forms should be 14ers and that the last line should link back to the first one.
Pasted from http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/sonnet/wreath.html
Many thanks to John Clitheroe for his work on the PoetsGarret site.
My example
Fantasy Augment,
a Wreathed Sonnet inspired by Vladislav Yeliseyev
Intruding on day’s failing light
the bright reflections in the sky
defy all reason, but delight
in spite of that; look how they fly
so high beyond the birds. I know
their glow announces festive cheer
for here we meet both bride and beau
with bouquets thrown – such times held dear.
The mansion, of itself is fine,
and wine will flow, and folks will dance
supplying memories by design
refined by being here. Don’t try
denying illusions that shine
divinely, when they get the chance.
© Lawrence Eberhart, April 22, 2015
Picture credit: Photo of Phillipi Mansion
painted by Vladislav Yeliseyev
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