Author Topic: A Sonnet for Jack  (Read 28675 times)

Offline Kerry

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A Sonnet for Jack
« on: December 13, 2006, 07:30:05 am »
Warning! I am a romantic! And an outrageous romantic, at that! So, you must forgive me if I engage in a little overt fantasizing here for a moment! Imagine, if you will, that Jack is a secret sonnet lover (I did warn you!!!) and has secreted in his saddle bags, that glorious summer of 1963, a small volume of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Over the campfire at night, Jack and Ennis languidly read sonnets to one another. Sigh! Sooo romantic! Ennis might very well have read this sonnet to Jack, a man whose “sweet love” he experienced so rapturously, he would not betray it, not even to become a king.

“When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee,--and then my state
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings'.”

I’ve got more sonnets and more scenarios for Jack and Ennis. Let me know if you enjoyed this and I’ll post them.

LOL

Kerry
« Last Edit: December 13, 2006, 07:46:33 am by Kerry »
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mvansand76

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2006, 07:34:53 am »
Warning! I am a romantic! And an outrageous romantic, at that!

Nothing wrong with that, Kerry, I am hopeless romantic myself and proud of it!  ;D

It's lovely, please feel free to post more!


Offline Kerry

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2006, 08:31:04 am »
Here's one of the most famous of Shakespeare's sonnets (from Jack's little book - LOL). I imagine that Ennis may have read this one in his lonely trailer, fighting back a stinging tear, contemplating the "eternal (unfading) summer" that is Jack:

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

Kerry   :'(
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Offline Lynne

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2006, 08:44:41 am »
These are beautiful, Kerry, and just serve to remind me of the timeless nature of love.  Shakespeare could have written these just for our boys!

I bumped a thread over in Movie Resources about Classical Allusions in BBM and parallels with the Aeneas story.

By all means, keep posting to your romantic heart's content!
"Laß sein. Laß sein."

Offline Kerry

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2006, 10:09:12 pm »
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

For me, these beautiful words conjure up two wonderful images from the original story by Annie Proulx:

* "Ennis and Jack, the dogs, horses and mules, a thousand ewes and their lambs flowed up the trail like dirty water through the timber and out above the tree line into the great flowery meadows and the coursing, endless wind."

* "The first snow came early, on August thirteenth, piling up a foot, but was followed by a quick melt - another bigger storm was moving in from the Pacific - and they packed in the game and moved off the mountain with the sheep, stones rolling at their heels, purple cloud crowding in from the west and the metal smell of coming snow pressing them on."

As Lynne said to me recently, it's almost as though these sonnets were written with our boys in mind!  :o

Kerry
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Offline magicmountain

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2006, 11:31:57 pm »
Here is another sonnet to Jack from Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

XLIII
 
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all. - Alexander the Great

Offline Kerry

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #6 on: December 17, 2006, 02:37:17 am »
Here is another sonnet to Jack from Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

 :'( Thank you for posting that beautiful EBB sonnet, MM. It sure got me good!  :'(
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Offline twistedude

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #7 on: December 17, 2006, 06:16:31 am »
The old disappears, and the new taikes its place. I wrote out "When in disgrace.." from memory about 4 months ago, and it's now on page two or three, with a lot of other "poems that remind you of Jack and Ennis."

But thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
I then do scorn to change my state with kings...
"We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?" --"Nine Lives," by Ursula K. Le Guin, from The Wind's Twelve Quarters

Offline Kerry

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #8 on: December 18, 2006, 08:03:53 am »
The old disappears, and the new taikes its place. I wrote out "When in disgrace.." from memory about 4 months ago, and it's now on page two or three, with a lot of other "poems that remind you of Jack and Ennis."

Sincere apologies, Twistedude. I didn't realize you had already posted it. I haven't been here long and I guess I was just swept away by the romantic atmosphere that pervades BetterMost. I should have done a search before posting. I am so impressed that you quoted it by heart  :o. Sadly, I cannot make that claim. It was a case of cut and paste for me  :-\.

I've just had a quick look back at previous posts and can't locate the following poem anywhere. Apologies if it's already been posted. It's called "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and was written by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593). I can't help but hear Jack's voice here, cooing gently in Ennis' ear, as they cuddle-up together by the campfire at night. Note the references to shepherds, mountains and rivers - even roses (stemmed or otherwise  ;) LOL). But the most poignant and relevant line for all of us here must be, "Come live with me, and be my love." It is so reminiscent of Jack's plaintive entreaty, "What if you and me had a little ranch together somewhere, little cow and calf operation, it'd be some sweet life": 

"Come live with me, and be my love;
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair-lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy-buds,
With coral clasps and amber-studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherd-swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love."

Kerry


« Last Edit: December 18, 2006, 08:09:45 am by Kerry »
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Offline Lynne

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #9 on: December 18, 2006, 11:38:09 am »
Sincere apologies, Twistedude. I didn't realize you had already posted it. I haven't been here long and I guess I was just swept away by the romantic atmosphere that pervades BetterMost. I should have done a search before posting. I am so impressed that you quoted it by heart  :o. Sadly, I cannot make that claim. It was a case of cut and paste for me  :-\.

No apologies necessary on anyone's part!  Just a different way of 'bumping' an old thread - we have nothing here but space and opportunity!  'Sides, if I had a nickel for every time I repeat myself...;)

I love the image of Jack as shepherd!  'Come live with me and be my love'

**sigh**

You've reminded me of an old thread that does some Jack/shepherd analysis and has a poem by St. John of the Cross:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=1137.msg130961#msg130961

-Lynne
"Laß sein. Laß sein."