I've self-identified as a Slytherin for most of my years in the Harry Potter fandom, dating from July in the year 2000, when I read the scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in which Severus Snape rolls up his sleeve to show Minister Fudge his Dark Mark as proof of Voldemort's return. That … Continue reading Overthinking and other favorite pastimes
poetry
September 22: In Which I Am Self-Deprecating and Meta
When so much happens in a single day That fourteen lines cannot contain it all, I must cut ruthlessly joy and dismay That seems on recollection more banal Than simple pleasures, grumpy anecdotes, From which my pithy aphorisms spring; Fun to extemporaneously quote, Thus needful, therefore to those words I cling. But my desire to … Continue reading September 22: In Which I Am Self-Deprecating and Meta
August 28: Do You Want to Write a Sonnet?
As every English student has found out, A sonnet can be writ by anyone- From rhyming word pairs inspiration sprouts, Resulting in a bit of scanning fun, And pride in saying, “Look at what I wrote!” Enjoying kinship with great wordsmiths past, Since, thanks to Shakespeare, sonnets form connotes Refinement, passion, cleverness, and class. Now, … Continue reading August 28: Do You Want to Write a Sonnet?
August 27: On Villanelles, or, No Villanelles
It was suggested that my daily sonnet Is insufficient challenge- I should spread My wings and place a feather in my bonnet By writing daily villanelles instead. The form demands two oft-repeated rhymes To end five three-line stanzas, two refrains, Each of which is repeated several times And finally finished off with a quatrain. To … Continue reading August 27: On Villanelles, or, No Villanelles
June 23: Similes Like Metaphors
When someone called me poet, I demurred And said that what I write is really verse; When asked the difference, I then deferred To dictionary, lest I make things worse. I found that verse has meter, which I knew, And often features rhymes at ends of lines, And while a poem has a rhythm, too, … Continue reading June 23: Similes Like Metaphors
June 9: Fifty Meter Freestyle
With plays and poems Shakespeare did decree The iamb as the undisputed king Of metered feet, disdaining the spondee And anapests to make his poems sing. Verses sound unbalanced with a trochee Swapped for each iamb, one foot left over, And lines that are all spondees can't not be Bland stuff that could not urge … Continue reading June 9: Fifty Meter Freestyle
June 3: Sonnet 154
By means of online dictionaries paired With equal measures of tenacity And stubbornness, for five months I have bared My life in sonnets for the world to see. Though my ambitions sometimes fall quite short Of what I dearly hope they will become, Whether by concepts I fail to comport, Or elements that cannot make … Continue reading June 3: Sonnet 154
January 1: Sonnet 101
An English sonnet's only fourteen lines, Possessing ten and sixty metered feet, Two stanzas of a thought, then by design, The turn, la volta, where ideas meet. The third quatrain is a kaleidoscope, Through which the prior stanzas can be viewed. And then a couplet which, the writer hopes, Will emphasize or contradict the mood. … Continue reading January 1: Sonnet 101
Libby Weber 