The word sonnet is a relatively new variation of the traditional form. In essence, it is a fourteen line poem, with one word set for each line. Concise and usually visual in effect, this “miniature” version can contain one or more sentences, as the articulation requires.
Each of the word sonnets in the following sequences attempts to be a pithy and suggestive poem in its own right. Many draw on the seasons and also aim for a compact resonance that may attract the reader to return to them again and again.
Ricochet
Go
find
something
in
the
dark:
snow
reflected
off
itself,
a
ricochet
of
illumination.
Le Ricochet
Pars
à
sa
recherche
dans
l’obscurité :
la
neige
se
renvoyant
sa
blancheur,
ricochet
d’illumination
Yiddish
Echo
of
whisper
as
distant
ghosts
in
their
millions
dream
the
living
into
speech.
Le Yiddish
Un
écho
de
chuchotements
d'innombrables
fantômes
lointains
rêvent
que
les
vivants
reprennent
la
parole.
Equinox
If
early
light
returns,
is
there
renewed
hope
for
ailing
tongues
rising
in
darkness?
L’équinoxe
Les
lueurs
matinales
revenues,
est-
il
redonné
aux
langues
souffrantes
érigées
dans
l’obscurité
d’espérer ?
Stone
You
have
come
and
gone
and
none
know
your
voice
or
name
but
stone.
La pierre
Tu
es
venu,
parti.
Ta
voix,
ton
nom,
sont
connus
seulement
de
la
pierre.
Light
Who
believes
in
light
everlasting,
enlightening
silence,
darkness
and
the
first
and
final
word?
La lumière
Qui
croit
aux
lueurs
éternelles,
silences
éclairants,
ténèbres,
au
premier
et
au
dernier
mot?
French Translations by Sabine Huynh
Seymour Mayne is the author, editor, or translator of more than seventy books. His own writings have been translated into many languages and are represented in over a hundred anthologies. Literary trailblazer and editor, he has compiled groundbreaking anthologies and critical texts. His latest collections include The Old Blue Couch and Other Stories (Ronald P. Frye & Co., 2012), Cusp: Word Sonnets (Ronald P. Frye & Co., 2014), and Le chant de Moïse (Mémoire d’encrier, 2018), a bilingual English-French selection of biblical poems. His most recent, a book-length offering of new work, Perfume: Poems and Word Sonnets (Ronald P. Frye & Co., 2020), marks sixty years since his first writings appeared in a Canadian literary journal. His collection of Word Sonnets is entitled Ricochet: Word Sonnets/Sonnets d’un mot (2011). An extensive volume of new and selected word sonnets is planned for publication in the coming year. Noted as the leading international innovator of the word sonnet, he has given readings and lectured widely on this unique new ‘miniature’ form. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Ottawa.