Bob Mitchell
Sweet Nature's Improvised 11-syllable 11-line Stanzas
(from The Terrestrial Gazebo of Delight, III, 24-26.)
‘When as I sweetly all vices do eschew
in survey of dulcet anapests anew
savouring each mouthfull of poetick stew;
even so, most sweet effects are very few.
So, from my arsenal of douceur I drew
to construct a new sort of verbal fondue
(disdaining the Heroick & Clerihew)
to make the streams of Helicon flow anew.
The affective intensification grew
& then to rapturous heights I flew
my seraphick inspiration to renew.
Wherefore on such a vein of richness I struck
I thought my reason had come quite unstuck
so that loudlie I cried out ‘O shit!’
even so grossly dared I the lyre to pluck
so that my fount of dulcet words ran amuck
to & fro the most sweet notes I then ...’
(she paused, stumpt for a rhyme. I continued
for her, ending her last line with ‘snuck’ -
a past tense ending for ‘to sneake’.)
‘... snuck
into the air, charming angels, geese & duck
so that all ceased to sing sweetly, hoot or cluck.
No sweeter soundes ever made Mozart or ... Gluck
faster carrying than Zeppelin or ... truck.
(Now I myself needed an eleventh line, &
since neither of us could improvise further
we both burst into a hose.)
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