Poem: 'Like an enfranchised bird, who wildly springs'

[lynnoconnacht]

But first! Some informational links. The Midnight Heart and Poetry Magnum Opus both have a more detailed description of the structural requirements for an englyn proest dalgron. I'm not an expert on them by a long shot, so I'm directing you to those who are, if not experts, at least more knowledgeable than myself.

I was hoping to find a Welsh englyn proest dalgron and translation to share with you all, but I'm afraid my google skills are utterly abysmal. So, instead, I shall share a sonnet!

I'm not particularly fond of sonnets, due to being introduced to them wrongly, so quite how I wound up with a book called A Century of Sonnets: The Romantic Revival, I had completely forgotten until I read the subtitle. It would be the Romantic there. Anyway!

So! The poem below is not mine. It is, in fact, by Caroline Norton. I found it in A Century of Sonnets: The Romantic Revival edited by Paula R. Fieldman and Daniel Robinson.

Caroline Norton is... not a person I am very familiar with. (I'm afraid my knowledge of poets is fairly mainstream, and UK oriented courtesy of my literature courses.) You can read the Wikipedia article on her here, if you're looking for more in-depth biographical information. But for here and now...

Caroline Norton was a British poet/author born in 1808 and who died in 1877. She was quite well-known in her time and was an important social reformer in the UK and fought to extend women's legal rights.

I have, unfortunately (or not, as your opinion may be) no background information on the sonnet below. I was just leafing through the book hoping to find something that struck a chord with me that I wanted to share and it turned out to be this one. ^-^

'Like an enfranchised bird, who wildly springs'

Like an enfranchised bird, who wildly springs,
With a keen sparkle in his glancing eye
And a strong effort in his quivering wings,
Up to the blue vault of the happy sky,­--
So my enamored heart, so long thine own,
At length from Love's imprisonment set free,
Goes forth into the open world alone,
Glad and exulting in its liberty:
But like that helpless bird, (confined so long,
His weary wings have lost all power to soar,)
Who soon forgets to trill his joyous song,
And, feebly fluttering, sinks to earth once more,­--
So, from its former bonds released in vain,
My heart still feels the weight of that remembered chain.

~ by Caroline Norton
~ quoted from A Century of Sonnets: The Romantic Revival edited by Paula R. Fieldman and Daniel Robinson

Comments

[jjhunter]

Thank you for the information re: Welsh poetry! I intend to do a little experimenting with working with English equivalent forms--it's so exciting to encounter some that I've never heard of or played with before.

The final line of the poem you chose will linger with me for some time, I think; there's a great deal of truth there. So many poems and stories end with the freeing of the bird and neglect to consider what might come next.

[lynnoconnacht]

Quite welcome! I hope you'll have fun playing with the forms! I'd love to see what you come up with when you're happy with it. ^-^

The world needs more stories (and poems) like this one, I agree. It doesn't seem to me to be going all that much farther than the more common tales, though. Whereas most stories, as you indicate, end with the bird being set free, here it stops when it realises what freedom is and there's no mention of whether it regains its strength or perishes. It's not something that'd fit into the poem itself, but narratively...

[jjhunter]

I feel like ysabetwordsmith's poetry often addresses this, especially the ones that are part of particular poem cycles.

[lynnoconnacht]

Oooooh!

[jjhunter]

:oD

It's something I've been getting very thoughtful about in re: to my own work...hence the fannish nine-part poem cycle I wrote for ladiesbigbang. I'd never done (or considered doing) something like that before.

Anyway, that sense of narrative continuity, of exploring how people go on with their chains on, off, in memory, or on mind--that seems to me to be very characteristic of ysabetwordsmith's work. Have you read any of Path of the Paladins cycle? I particularly like 'Shine On'.

[lynnoconnacht]

Must link that to Buffy-fan friend!

I haven't, no. I'm a bit intimidated by the volume of poetry available and not sure where best to start. I was going to start with the new steampunk cycle, actually, both because it's new and I can follow it from the start and because it gets me started. I'm a slow online reader, unfortunately. *bookmarks wonderful list anyway* Thank you! <3 That will help me figure out how I want to read them massively!

[jjhunter]

If you're intimidated by that long list, then I recommend starting with ysabetwordsmith's posts here at the comm -- she hosted the very first week that we opened for business, so to speak, and she not only shared a poem from each of her main poem cycles but also included commentary on them. It's a very good way to get a solid introduction to her work without getting overwhelmed the sheer quantity of what she's written.

[lynnoconnacht]

I like that list. ^-^ It's the one on LJ (I think) that intimidated me, but LJ is refusing to load so I can't check to see which one scared me. *sigh* Starting here sounds like a good idea too, though! ^-^ Commentary can be great fun to read.

[jjhunter]

Commentary is love. Comments are too--she generally responds to every one she gets, and I subscribe globally to all the comments on the comm, so between the three of us it's quite possible to spark some very interesting conversations even on old posts.

[lynnoconnacht]

Oooh, that sounds good! ^-^

[smw]

Poems that are essentially extended metaphors have always appealed to me very strongly. Thank you for sharing.

[lynnoconnacht]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. ^-^