![]() ![]() The American sonnets of “…Assassin,” though less-formal, read successfully because of a wordplay that mimics the rhythms of roots-music and hip-hop, lending the work the lyrical sense of a being in the world surviving negative circumstances. ![]() The motivating characteristic of the sonnet is the volta, “ ‘the turn’ that introduces into the poem a possibility for transformation, like a moment of grace.” Hayes’ lively use of the mode follows suit, sharing provocative insights in dynamic ways. ![]() It’s these poems that poetic powerhouse Terrance Hayes cites as inspiration for his newest collection, “American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin” (Penguin Books), comprising 70 sonnet-hybrids, all of them titled the same as the book itself.Īccording to Phillis Levin’s “The Penguin Book of the Sonnet,” the 14-line sonnet (Italian for “little song”) originated in 13th century Sicily, and “in its limited space it has logged, from the start, the awakening of a rational being to an overwhelming force in the self or the world.” The form’s Petrarchan and Shakespearean types use different stanza lengths, though still relying on iambic pentameter as its dominant rhythmic meter. ![]()
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May 2023
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