Monday, 30 May 2005
EoMEoTE#7 – a sonnet
As many of you already know, EoMEoTE (End of Month Egg on Toast Extravaganza) was hatched by the rulebound Jeanne at ‘Cook sister!’ and Anthony at ‘Spice Blog’. I never really know who is hosting the monthly event. All I know is that last month, Jeanne wrote:
Next month, all posts are to be submitted as Petrarchan sonnets.
Aye yai yai!! I don’t even know what a Petrarchan sonnet is! (So I looked it up – apparently the rhyme scheme is abbaabba cdecde) Drat! It turns out that the first draft of the sonnet I wrote is Spenserian – rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee. And I know what sticklers for rules the EoMEoTE folks are! Luckily, I have great skill at composing poetry *cough* and was able to revise:
. . . a simple shell of a simple notion
Planned and prepared with care and devotion
Served up with juice and coffee on a tray
Or on the patio – what do you say?
At end of the month whisked into motion
Omelette or boiled? …conflicting emotion
Fried, poached or frittata are also okay
With what sort of toast? rye or poppy seed?
Or grainy whole wheat? Hey! Why not have all?
…Alas alack …just one egg in the box!
No Hollandaise?? We’re slavering with greed…
It is decided! Let’s get on the ball!
We will just have bagels, creamcheese and lox.
Okay, okay. I admit it. We don’t have any bagels, creamcheese or lox either. But give me a break! What else rhymes with “box”?? And truth be told, we don’t even have ONE egg. Pin it all down to poetic *cough* licence. (I really should have that cough seen to, shouldn’t I?) But we do have toast. So we sautéed some sliced mushrooms and had mushrooms on toast. One out of two isn’t bad….
How horrid! (Not your poem, which is excellent, but the capriciousness of the rules.)
I’m secretly hoping that you’ll turn your Petrarchan sonnet into a limerick, just to show them.
I’m afraid I didn’t rewrite my sonnet but composed *cough* a whole new poem *cough* (I wonder if it’s allergies that is causing this cough)
Oh, oh oh. So many demands. I could feel your disapproval that I didn’t revise my sonnet. So I tried:
I planned with care and devotion
Month end: whisked into motion
toast: rye or seed?
more eggs do we need…
(No eggs at all!) …emotion
I love contrived poetry!
Oh I’m soooooooo embarrassed!!! Grovelling apologies… It was a combination of a lot of stuff – firstly, the Petrarchan sonnet was half said in jest. Secondly, I didn’t want to torture everyone with having to write sonnets – I’ve written them and I know what a pain they can be! And lastly, when I put that post up on Friday I had one foot out of the door to try and get off to Bath for the weekend. I had to get something up in a hurry and limericks are easy to write on the trot… I never thought somebody would actually remember the Petrarchan sonnet requirement, much less put themselves to the inconvenience of writing one!! I guess now I will have to write one (gulp!)
Would you forvige me my fickle poetic theme change if I included you in the roundup as a Pertarchan participant, despite your lack of eggs??
Brilliant (ooops, sorry- I meant EGGCELENT) on all counts!
Jeanne, no apology is necessary! I hope you know that I am joking about the tribulation of having to write a sonnet. I could easily have just chucked what I wrote and switched from a rotten sonnet to a rotten limerick. But I wanted to show off that I could get close with a sonnet…. (As it happens, the sonnet was easier than the limerick)
And of course I expect to be included in the roundup! Mushrooms are roundish and might be mistaken for eggs, mightn’t they? And this time the toast was under the mushrooms. So by my reckoning, I have fulfilled all of the rules (except the limerick part – although… the limerick is included in the comments. So scratch that. I’ve fulfilled all the rules).
Thank you, Moira. You do wonders for my ego (eggo??)
Well, I like the reworked limerick the best of all the poems featured here.
Shame about that *cough* …
“When it comes to eggs, there’s nothing better than nothing.”
bing, unrepentant egg-hater
I still have no idea what a Petrarchan sonnet is. Must have been a crap school I went to.
Good on you for the amazing effort with the sonnett and then to follow it up with the limerick too! Dedication and persitence like that will not go unrewarded! I’m sure you’ll be getting some karma points for that or at least some double yolks in your next carton of eggs.
I don’t really know what a Petrarchan sonnet is either, Andrew, but I like to pretend…. (I have a vague recollection of studying sonnets in grade 12 but confess that I didn’t really pay a whole lot of attention)
Lyn, you are too kind. We did get double yolk eggs a few months ago – perhaps they were a retro-reward for my poetic *cough* effort.
Bing, stop making me laugh out loud.