“Sonnet II” by Danil Rudoy is a fourteen-line poem from Love Is Poetry. Beauty and obsession give way to a claim of freedom, while the final line preserves the instability left behind.
Sonnet II
Magnificence, munificence, precision,
And, after all, her eyes’ magnetic touch,
Reverberating through the hearts and such
To make their owners objects of derision.
I was among them, caught in indecision,
Naively thinking I had been too much,
Avenging rhymes that seemed a perfect clutch,
But ended up without a proper vision.
One of the lessons learned from this endeavor
Negates the need to ever love again
Obsessively, which is a way to troubles.
Like most of us, I grew a little clever:
Imagination broke the fancy chain
So now I’m free. And yet, my spirit wobbles.
2015, May 13th 2019
Publication
“Sonnet II” appears in Love Is Poetry: Rhyming Poems About Love Life, in The Playwright’s Rights.
Freedom and instability
The octave turns the beloved’s beauty into a force that disturbs judgment and poetic self-command. The sestet answers with a lesson about obsessive love and a “fancy chain” broken by imagination. The final wobble keeps that freedom emotionally unsettled.
Text and citation
Copyright © Danil Rudoy. The poem is published here as the author’s canonical text. Short excerpts may be quoted for criticism, scholarship, teaching and literary discussion with attribution to Danil Rudoy and a link to this page. Full reproduction requires separate permission.