I wrote a sonnet yesterday. A classic format, 14-line rhyming sonnet. I mention this not for your admiration (although it is pretty cool), but because it points to an insidious aspect of American (read: white) culture.
I wrote a sonnet because I am reading a book about understanding poetry. The author says that the best way to understand a form is to imitate it, so that is what I have been attempting. The rhythmic bounce of a sonnet’s iambic pentameter (daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM) slips easily into my bloodstream, bringing back memories of immersion in 18th and 19th century British literature as a novice writer in college. But now, its hypnotic pulse also makes me uneasy. How is it that in the 21st century we are still being taught centuries-old British literary forms as the “classic” forms? Why have generations and generations of American immigrants been taught to revere - and identify with - all things Anglo-Saxon/British, from their accents to their absurd system of royalty? You might say that in terms of cultural dominance, Britain actually won the war in 1776. Their model of white male christian superiority is in many ways still the dominant curriculum here.
I wrote a sonnet because I am reading a book about understanding poetry. The author says that the best way to understand a form is to imitate it, so that is what I have been attempting. The rhythmic bounce of a sonnet’s iambic pentameter (daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM) slips easily into my bloodstream, bringing back memories of immersion in 18th and 19th century British literature as a novice writer in college. But now, its hypnotic pulse also makes me uneasy. How is it that in the 21st century we are still being taught centuries-old British literary forms as the “classic” forms? Why have generations and generations of American immigrants been taught to revere - and identify with - all things Anglo-Saxon/British, from their accents to their absurd system of royalty? You might say that in terms of cultural dominance, Britain actually won the war in 1776. Their model of white male christian superiority is in many ways still the dominant curriculum here.