This was written on Bonfire Night, 2006. I watched the fireworks with the children, then came inside to warm up and read some of the history of Guy Fawkes and his plot.<\/p>\n
History can be as comforting as it is unsettling.<\/p>\n
In time, September the eleventh night,
\nThe kids will watch the rockets fill the air.
\nThey’ll OOH and AAH in multicoloured light
\nWith bioluminescents in their hair.
\nOur tragedies will be reduced to rhyme:
\nSome half-remembered, mistranslated song
\nAnd jumping dance, its meaning lost to time,
\nDetails missing, names and places wrong.
\nThough self-renewing terror haunts our lives,
\nOur children, staring upward at the sky,
\nRemind us that their innocence survives
\nWhile we, and they, and generations die.
\nResist with decency when terror stalks
\nIt’s stronger than Bin Laden, Marx or Fawkes.<\/p>\n
In technical terms, this is an okay sonnet. There is very little “turn” in this one, between the octave and the sestet. The only real transition is from the scene at the start to the message in the conclusion. The couplet does sum things up nicely. But the language is never clever, or particularly powerful.<\/p>\n
In terms of content, this is a sonnet I believe in very deeply indeed. I think we exist in a historical context, and that it is important for us to remember that in the choices we make. I think (looking backward) civilisation has faced worse challenges than we face now, and (looking forward) that we owe it to the future not to overreact, or sell out our principles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This was written on Bonfire Night, 2006. I watched the fireworks with the children, then came inside to warm up and read some of the history of Guy Fawkes and his plot. History can be as comforting as it is unsettling. In time, September the eleventh night, The kids will watch the rockets fill the … Continue reading September 11, a sonnet<\/span>