Garland of Sonnets:
What is a "garland of sonnets"?
Sonnets can sometimes be composed as a sequence. Sonnets in sequence can be either "a crown of sonnets" or the even more complex "garland of sonnets".
According to The Poetry Handbook: a Dictionary of Terms, by Babette Deutsch (fourth edition)© 1981 ISBN 0-06-463548-1, pp. 169-169:
Occasionally a poet employs a more complex arrangement, as [John] Donne does in the first sequence called "Holy Sonnets". Here the last line of each sonnet is repeated as the first line of its successor, the seventh and final sonnet in the cycle ending with the line it opened... It was forbidden to repeat the sound of a rhyme once used, except as repetition dictated, a prescription that Donne did not strictly obey. Known as a CROWN OF SONNETS, this is traditionally in the nature of a crown for the one addressed.
A similar, even more elaborate cycle is called a GARLAND OF SONNETS. Its difficulties notwithstanding, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was used by several Russian poets. It consists of 15 sonnets, so arranged that in the 15th and final sonnet all the lines in those preceding it are repeated. They are also braided into the body of the garland. If we assign Roman numerals to the sonnets, and arabaic numerals to the lines, I, starting with 1, ends with 2. II starts with 2, and ends with 3. III starts with 3, and ends with 4. Finally, XIV starts with 14, and ends with 1, while XV, starting with 1, ends with 14.
Babette Deutsch
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Eric Linden's garland of sonnets is based on historical facts. On 6 December 1917, the largest man-made explosion prior to Hiroshima in 1945 happened in Halifax Harbour. Some 10,000 were injured or died, 325 acres flattened, debris from the Mont Blanc (anchors and cannon) was found as far as 5 km (3 mi) away.
If this has happened in the USA, Hollywood would have dozens of films of the event, and it would be known worldwide. Although I have spent a lifetime in Canada, my first knowledge of this disaster came from a book I took on vacation just recently. Jan 2003, 85 years after the blast.
2.) I have been pronouncing IMO as “EE-mo”, somewhat like the bird “emu”.
3.) The language used in this garland is purposely in keeping with a documentary. Except for the odd instance, a dictionary should not be required.
© 3 March 2003
Eric Linden
1.
1917
Across the vast Atlantic, guns blaze on.
The European hills and leas resound
With bursts of gunfire. Shells explode around
The trenches full of soldiers. Every dawn,
More frightful carnage - many souls are gone.
What once was meadow turned to pockmarked ground
From flying mortars hitting field and mound.
In 1917 a line was drawn.
December 5. In New York Harbour lay
SS Mont Blanc, a French munitions ship.
Her wood-lined hull was held by copper nails -
No sparks to fly if metal rubbed some way.
Longshoremen’s boots were wrapped; should someone trip
There’d be no accident before she sails.
2.5 December 1917
There’d be no accident before she sails.
Her cargo manifest read like a book
Of horror tales. From captain to the cook,
Her crew all prayed they’d greet no northern gales.
High-octane fuel was stacked around the rails
While down below, explosives filled each nook
And cranny. Cautiously they’d round each crook
To meet their convoy, bound for Europe’s swales.
200 tons of nitrates - TNT;
300 tons of picric acid, dry;
2,000 tons of picric acid, wet;
10 tons of cotton for artillery;
300 rounds of ammo for Supply;
Full 30 tons of Benzol (under net).
3.Halifax Harbour
Full 30 tons of Benzol under net
Weighed down the bow and made her progress slow.
Port Halifax was closed to traffic flow -
The harbour chains were drawn to curb the threat
Of U-boats. Anchor dropped outside, she met
More merchant ships, they nodded to and fro
On tether chains. Out west, a reddish glow
Announced that day was done - the sun had set.
In Bedford Basin, ships from near and far
With crews ship-bound for high security
Lay waiting for the morning tide to sail
In convoy, destined for the furthest star.
A large Norwegian vessel by one quay -
The IMO’s Captain checked the last detail.
4.6 December 1917
The IMO’s Captain checked the last detail
Before he set his course for Boston and
New York. “Relief for Belgium,” like a brand,
Was painted on the IMO’s sides. A trail
Of smoke poured from her funnel; soon they’d hail
New England’s shores. The day began so grand
With skies pale blue, a mist along the strand,
And not a wind was blowing down the dale.
At seven-thirty, IMO cleared the quay
And sailed toward The Narrows, outward bound.
SS Mont Blanc had weighed her anchors; she
Set sail for Bedford Basin from the sea.
Along the densely populated mound
Both ships began to signal frantically.
