'SONNET BY CHANCE' UNVEILED IN COBOURG

Click on image to enlarge

The Peoples Republic of Poetry unveiled a sonnet in Victoria Park, Cobourg, Ontario, yesterday afternoon. The sonnet, designed by poet Wally Keeler, was required to meet the strict zoning regulations of a Shakespearian sonnet configuration. Rhyme Scheme Investigators from the Creative Intelligence Anarchy last month issued a certificate of authenticity affirming that Poet Keeler’s structure meets all of the technical requirements of a sonnet, thereby giving the project the green light.

The sonnet is located along the ‘boardwalk’ delineating parkland from beach sand. It is a choice placement in what many regard as the finest park/beach on the shores of Lake Ontario.

The sonnet has been electronically solar-sensitized to present its face to direct sunlight in the same manner as gluttonous flowers follow the sun with their colourful petal wide-ons. Sunlight absorbed into the black dots generates the energy to rotate the sonnet’s face towards the sun. Little energy is expended to rotate the sonnet, so the surplus is stored and the sonnet feeds from this on overcast days.

Constructed of the finest luminescent faux-ivory, direct sunlight splashes off the sonnet with resplendent radiance regardless of time of day.

“This sonnet was inspired by my first visit to Casino Couplet in Mesopoetamia. I was hot. I had thrown a 7-run roll before Lady Luck turned her back on me. Later that night, the idea for this sonnet came to me by chance,” explained Poet Keeler as he unveiled his sonnet, which has been aptly named, Sonnet By Chance.

“Rhyme scheme investigators have become inured to my application of the sonnet configuration to various objects, rather than words” the poet added.

The rhyme scheme is reflected in the number of black dots per die. Stacked one on top of the other the 14-die conform to the abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme, however this sonnet has other attractive features aside from three quatrains and a rhyming couplet.

The ascending numbers as the sonnet is ‘read’ from top to bottom is reflective of the narrative development of a sonnet. The Italian Sonnet which preceded the Shakespearian or English sonnet by several centuries consists of two parts (octave and sestet); the narrative of the octave leads to the volta or ‘turn’ of thought in the sestet.

In the case of Sonnet By Chance, the volta or ‘turn’ resides in the rhyming couplet in which the six dots in the die are turned vertically.

Cleverly, the reverse side of this sonnet reflects the same rhyme scheme in descending order. The left side of the sonnet consists entirely of dice bearing two and three dots and producing a zig-zag effect, whereas the right side consists of four and five and presents a more solid block face.

The first Sonnet By Chance was erected in Heroes Square in Budapest, Hungary in 2006. The documentation of its construction is lovingly maintained in the archives of the Artpool Art Research Centre which also maintains the Homage Sonnet to Marcel Duchamp. Sonnet By Chance was considerably scaled down for the Cobourg erection.

“I’ve always preferred sonnet erections that are strong, sturdy and exceedingly poetent,” said Kathryn McGlynn, a life-long friend of Poet Keeler. “His rhyming couplets are renowned for their rich fecundity.”

“I’ve seen many sonnets in my life, in poetry collections, in specialized anthologies. Poet Keeler is the only one I know to step outside the confines of language to manifest sonnets in 3D, and to apply poetic rhyme schemantras as a principle of design to assorted objects and materials.” said Cobourg poet/photographer Ted Amsden. “It is an extraordinary application of simile – this is like that.”

Poet Keeler has been exploring variations of poetic configurations (haiku, limerick, sonnet) and applying them to assorted objects and data. Some of his sonnets are configured statistics and became part of a series he called Sonnets From The Computerese, a minor take on the title of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets From The Portugese.