They come from my current ‘English Strain’ project of
overdub sonnets, ‘Bad Idea’ which is working through Michael Drayton’s 1619
text Idea. They take Brexit as theme, one might say.
You can check out these versions’ models here: Drayton,
Michael. ‘Idea.’ in Arundell Esdaile, ed. Daniel’s
Delia and Drayton’s Idea. London:
Chatto and Windus: 1908. 67-141; online at Luminarium: http://www.luminarium.org/editions/idea.htm
I’m pleased to say three other poems from Bad Idea have now appeared online in Monitor on Racism. Patricia Farrell’s two images of Bo (now he’s an
important figure again!) accompany them. Find those here. http://monitoracism.eu/from-bad-idea/
You may read about the whole ‘English Strain’ project in a
post that has links to some other accounts, and earlier parts, of this work: here. That was 100 poems long. But I didn’t
stop there though. The most recent instalment of it, Hap: Understudies of Thomas Wyatt’s Petrarch (the title describes how it is like Bad Idea) is available from
Knives Forks and Spoons here:
'Last Look', from The
English Strain, also appeared in The International Times: here.
See a previous sonnet in International
Times here:
(‘Avenge’, another sonnet, a contrafact on Milton’s ‘Avenge O Lord…’, and featuring
elements concerning the (female) Yasidi resistance to IS, belongs to a
connected sequence, 'Overdubs'.)
(I am also posting a new poem weekly, and temporarily, on
this blog. There will be one in an adjacent post. Click onto ‘home’ and then
scroll!)
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| Victor Merriman - dedicatee of one of the quartet of poems in International Times |
