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]

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! ^-^