REGRESSIVE SONNET

 

W. S., to himself

Your old catastrophes queued to recur,

And vital fire contracted to a hole,

Would you go back in dreams to what you were

And try anew the unenacted role?

Dead pleasures fading to a wasted blur,

Desire perversely lives, a glowing coal

That stale regret but pricks you on to stir,

Revision of the past your only goal.

So little left could hardly come to less:

A clinging succubus took you as prey,

And, yet possessing you, makes you regress;

The sleepless demon that forced you to say

“Yes” when you meant “No,” “No” when you meant “Yes,”

Still makes a day of night, a night of day.

Note: In lines 1, 2, and 5, the verbs are not all in the past tense; the construction at the beginning of each sentence is an adverbial/participial phrase as in “Given the circumstances, …” and “Their schoolwork done, …” and “All things being equal, …” 

 

 

Photo from http://quotationsbook.com/quotes/author/photos/6633

First Posted by Pier Roberto Giannelli at 10/04/2011