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A Sonnet for My One True Love
Forever let the night go on and on,
My body to your softness gently pressed,
Nor let the touch of shameful, blushing dawn,
Wake me, part us, and end a lover’s rest.
How I adore your smooth and silky form,
And how we spend the long, dark nights together,
I adore how every night you keep me warm,
Through all the cold, cold nights and stormy weather.
The alarm sounds with its shrill, obnoxious cry,
I resent it as all nighttime lovers do,
And in unwelcome morning light I spy,
Dogs resting at your foot; they love you too.
Of all God’s grand designs it may be said,
Beloved is pillow, blanket, mattress, bed.
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Timing Is Everything
“Oh my! Look there, a giant snake!”
Tobias said to his pal, Joe.
Tragically just a bit too late,
Albeit true and apropos.
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Aaron Nydegger practices medicine full time and poetry part time in Layton, Utah. His poetry has appeared in venues such as The Asses of Parnassus, The Road Not Taken, The Orchards, and Lighten Up Online.
Your first poem is such a soft and sensuous love poem with intruding reality to conclude. The second one sends shivers down my spine upon seeing a giant snake and then the half-comical/half-tragical ending.
“A Sonnet for My One True Love” is a great reversal poem… the reader gets heated up for a smashingly erotic conclusion, and finds out at the end that this isn’t about a steamy night of intercourse, but about a soft bed. This makes the poem’s title an example of delayed satire — the overblown title seems an unrelieved saccharine cliche, but at the end is shown to be mocking any cliche expectations.
To Evan: once again, your choice of an illustration is brilliant.
“My One True Love” embodies love in its familiar forms, beginning with the romantic and ending with the mundane–even the love of one’s pets. The final couplet incorporates divine love in an allusion to the Sabbath. Perhaps the sweetest note of eros is how its intensity gradually unfolds in comfort, familiarity, and trust. Well done.
Where is there an allusion to the Sabbath in this poem? Nowhere, as far as I can see.
God’s grand design, satisfaction in love, is found in images of restfulness (Sabbath) in the final line.
With all due respect, that is very farfetched.
Comical-satiric poems normally do not contain pious religious references.
Fascinating. I had not read it as a comic-satirical poem–though I can certainly see how it might be read that way. I read it as finding joy and satisfaction in the simplicity of life that results from fulfilling love. (Perhaps I was wrong to do so.) My own way of reading favors the Quadriga method of the medieval period, seeing the spiritual sense as well as the literal, so–to your point–I may be stretching too far. Thank you for your insights.
A lovely poem, Aaron, but having read Dr. Joe’s comments, my original assessment is thrown into confusion. Regardless, I enjoyed reading your creation.
Upon first reading, I smiled and recalled “Wouldn’t it be nice”, Beach Boys 1966. Our young man, regardless of whether or not he had rounded the bases, realized that the final fortress was actually to spend the night, fall asleep, and awaken with her in a trustful closeness otherwise unachievable.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new?
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through.”
But post JSS, I reread and see the light. The poem is about comfort! Only that, and any soft, smooth, and silky body or pillow or mattress will do. Unless well trained, the dogs will most certainly climb aboard when the coast is clear, because they too appreciate comfort.
I absolutely love my bed, too, and hate to part from it when I have not gotten enough sleep!
Thanks to each for reading my poems and the kind comments.
JF:
Dr. Salemi is correct that there was no intentional allusion to a Sabbath and that the poem is mostly a light verse satire. It’s hard to pull one over on a professor of classics. Although…
I once read that John Knowles was asked about some literary devices in his work and he mentioned that he felt that there were genuinely many hidden gems that he hadn’t purposefully planted and also that it didn’t really matter. Of course one only gets credit for what was done on purpose.
The poem is about leaving the restful and returning to the mundane workaday world which is something I feel most keenly every Monday waking up after an enjoyable Sabbath. I also just find it nice to think of the phrase “ a lover’s rest” as referring to a Sabbath day. Maybe all references to a good rest ( even in straight forward light verse) refer a bit to God’s true rest: Inqietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te. I think the same may apply to most Eros in poetry (thanks also REP for your comment) as a stand in for God’s love. Now I’m certainly taking a silly joke poem much too seriously, but the comment did make me like both the poem and Sabbaths just a tiny bit more which I suppose is the point of forums like this.
JSS: Out of curiosity, hearing you referred to as Dr Joe, I googled your name and was quite pleased to have had something I wrote read by an authority such as yourself.
By the way, FR, my dog is decidedly not well-trained and is sleeping at the foot of my mattress at this very moment.
I love that Beach Boys song (and all their others). Brian Wilson was a great genius and speaking of rest—may he rest in peace.
Again, thanks all and best wishes.