THOU HAST MY ROSE
There lived a little sparrow
Hopping on my lawn,
On my windowsill, she sat
Until dusk from dawn!
Heretofore she sang, then wept
All agog was me,
Songs of anguish, what she crooned,
Tears were all of glee.
Mourning unrequited love,
Yet she learnt and evolved.
Red is all her heart’s new wounds
Ochre, burnt, she glows
Salmon pink is flushed her scars
Eschewed, she’s a Rose!
⚫ The whole Roseate Sonnet is formed on an acrostic of its title…THOU HAST MY ROSE (You have my rose), which is the central theme of the poem too.
⚫ It has a proper rhyme scheme of ABCB…DEFE…GG…HIJI
⚫ It follows an Iambic foot rhythm and a syllable count of 7-5-7-5…7-5-7-5…7-5…7-5-7-5
Epilogue: Both the metaphors, the Sparrow and the Rose here, symbolize a Woman. The Sparrow is a young girl…carefree, spirited, creative and innocent. She evolves as a Rose, a grown-up mature woman who is beautiful, fragile, grave and enigmatic.
A rose is considered the celebration of the Divine Feminine Power. It’s always associated with mysticism and intrigue which adds to its spiritual overtures.
What is a ‘ROSEATE SONNET’?
“It’s a new, experimental poetic form developed by Dr Ampat Koshy in 2012. Like a classic Shakespearean Sonnet, it too has 14 lines in which the first two quatrains are followed by a couplet. Then follows the ultimate quatrain which starts its first line with R, the second with O, the third with S and the fourth with E to form an acrostic that reads ‘ROSE.’ The couplet acts as a volte-face, from where the poem shows a paradigm shift.
This form has no other constraints like rhyme, rhythm or blank verse, unlike its earlier forms or variants. There is no fixed syllable count for the lines though I have followed all the rules being an aficionado of classic Shakespearean Sonnet.
PS: The featured image of this post is clicked by me.
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