This summer is a dragon’s fiery breath
with fevered brow, she brings with daylight drought
and in her path with tindered grass comes death
from restless flames, behind her ash and nought.
This summer’s kiss is passion burning hot,
a blaze devouring flesh, your soul and sense.
but summer’s ardour also is what’s not
the winter’s longing and intense suspense.
This summer is your mistress, not your mate,
a second movement in allegro, right before
the third and fourth, the largo that’s your fate
your symphony of life. your season’s score
This summer’s sentiment is burning bliss
until an afternoon, a sudden storm
in rain at last you comprehend what’s missed
That passion has to balance with your norms.
We need in fevered fervour sound of mind
to balance sunshine with the rain combines.
Corneille
Today I host dVerse with a heroic sonnet according to John Donne. 18 lines with a concluding couplet.
June 15, 2023
Björn Rudbergs writings 
This is STUNNING work done, Bjorn! I especially like; “This summer is your mistress, not your mate, a second movement in allegro, right before the third and fourth.” 💜💜💜
I tried to weave a little bit of music from the prompt that I missed
I noticed the allegro reference 🙂
I love the way you have balanced passion in your heroic sonnet, Björn, from heat of the ‘dragon’s fiery breath’, ‘tindered grass’ and summer’s burning hot kiss to the ‘sudden storm’ and rain.
I think that John Donne worked a lot with metaphors and conceit (which might have been needed during his life)
That is true of most poets of the time.
Very well written, Bjorn. I love your Summer as a symphonic movement and the double meaning of the burning bliss that could come from this line…
This summer’s sentiment is burning bliss
until an afternoon, a sudden storm
in rain at last you comprehend what’s missed
Yes, we need that balance to stay sane I think
I agree!
I like the way the lines in your sonnet run from one to the next. Something I am not quite good at yet.🌻🍉☀️
Yes that took me a while to go from end-stop to enjambment… for me it helped to use punctuation also in classic forms.
What balance it must be – sunshine with sudden rain storms. Love the theme of the seasons – summer and winter, the symphony of life. Thanks for the challenge.
I thought of using metaphor for this … glad that it worked.
You’re so good at this form. Love your volta of the rain, when you wake up and realize what you have done.
It liked the additional freedom that you may not have in a normal sonnet.
I enjoyed writing using this form, and probably for that reason 🙂
It worked well for you, I would call this a Metaphoric Heroic Sonnet. Excellent with Metaphors throughout. Yes, passion has its seasons, one of my favorite songs was “We got married in a Fever”, “Hotter than a pepper sprout.”
Thanks for the neat prompt form, I took liberties as you said we may.
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Indeed… passions are like summer, burning hot.
Oh yes, I fixed mine to have 18 lines instead of 10. Sorry about that, guess where you were giving us leeway as to rhyme, meter other, I read into it number of lines. I write a lot of the modern shortened ones, I call it a short sonnet.
The eight lines that I added were of some evidence for the two opposites of which I’d written, between lines . . . keeping my lines nine and ten as the lines being 19 and 20. They continue the same rhyme and syllable count themes.
I will continue writing what I call “short sonnets” with syllable count possibly from five to 11 or 12 syllables where those are okay. Generally the meter is constant but sometimes not. I am thinking most are seven or eight.
BTW, I have Lingering COVID since March 2021. I can hardly smell and taste. It also has made my memory loss worse, especially names of persons and places. Plus my mucus collects as never before, lungs, through, nose, and sinus. It seems the latter has lessened somewhat. And my balance has worsened, I’m using a cane now to help me to walk in a straight line. I have lost about eight canes, I leave them someplace and kept. A few I get retrieved, including last week. I will check for it at the library come Tuesday, Monday is a holiday here in the USA. My neurologists think that I can blame some of the memory problem on to aging. And that memyoy one is very annoying and embarrassing in conversations and writing, it also affects my keeping train of thought. I will be 90 come this October, I will cope, or try too.
Sorry also this became so long. Thank you again for giving me a second chance with the writing, you are most kind.
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Your poem speaks loud and clear to a man who having just completed your challenge, must now get to his allotment and water before the sun gets too high and shrivels all the vegetables… Brilliant!
It’s so hot at the moment here… we are melting.
I think if I had the choice I’d go for the largo rather than the allegretto 🙂
I think we need a bit of both.
I love how you compared summer to one movement in the symphony of life. The balance of sun and storms. Beautiful!
Seasons work so well to the season
Yes, indeed.
Fan-friggin’-tastic, Björn. This is beautiful.
~David
Thank you David
I really enjoyed the combined metaphors making this summer a passionate mistress with dragon breath. 😎
This summer’s sentiment is burning bliss
until an afternoon, a sudden storm
in rain at last you comprehend what’s missed
That passion has to balance with your norms.
We need in fevered fervour sound of mind
to balance sunshine with the rain combines.
Brilliant lines!
I like the way you use the seasons and the climate to reflect human relationships and emotion. and you make the form look so easy! (K)
This summer .. the passion .. this heroic sonnet is breathtaking, Bjorn. Thank you for the challenge.
“but summer’s ardour also is what’s not
the winter’s longing and intense suspense.”
Bravo!!!
And your accompanying images are alwzys intriguing
Much💚love
Your poem is structured so well. One section to the next to the final volta. Truly masterful. You began with dragon’s fire, triggering the imagination with magic. I felt that magic throughout, never diminishing, from one thought to the next.
Passionate and musical writing. Outstanding, Bjorn!