“As Barth”: Entry #2

The second entry comes from Theodora Hawksley, a postgraduate student at Durham University who is working on the ecclesiology of Stanley Hauerwas. According to Theodora, her poem is in the style of John Donne, to which I’ll add that it is a Petrarchan sonnet.

As Barth
Oh, teach me Barth, three person’d God; for, as
He sought, strove, taught and struggled to the end
That he might preach: so take me, Christ, and send
Me out, all joyous in Your headlong grace –
Yes! Let me work as Barth did: pipe in teeth,
Dogged, chuckling, indexing Your beauty,
With You still striding on before, for he,
Thirteen stout volumes deep, found hushing peace.
I cherish him, but let my vision be
Not his rimmed spectacles and rumpled hair
But You, my God; I ask you make of me
More than books can: oh Lord, create anew
Not just a Barthian, but one who’d dare
To seek you and then, as I find, declare.


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Comments

I really like this one - 4 out of 5 stars!
Anonymous said…
When I say "in the style of John Donne", I mean "horribly mangled pastiche", obviously! :-)
Ben Myers said…
Now that is marvellous! If this one doesn't win, I'll eat my hat! I especially love these lines:

Yes! Let me work as Barth did: pipe in teeth,
Dogged, chuckling, indexing Your beauty,
With You still striding on before, for he,
Thirteen stout volumes deep, found hushing peace.
Jon said…
Women shouldn't smoke a pipe...

I'm sorry but I could never appreciate a woman who did EVEN if they took Barth as their paradigm...
Aric Clark said…
Okay, writing a "petrarchan sonnet in the style of John Donne in near perfect iambic pentameter" is obnoxious - but I have to agree this is the best serious entry yet.
Anonymous said…
I don't ACTUALLY smoke a pipe, or anything for that matter - though be warned, I might start if sufficiently provoked by sexism! Nor am I dogged, I wrote it to procrastinate from doing my thesis. That it is a 'Petrarchan sonnet' (whatever that is) was news to me. We all still speak in iambic pentameter in England - didn't you know? :-) To wit:

A girl who, by cribbing from Donne,
Wrote a Barthian poem for fun
Simply worked out the beat
From his sonnet (the cheat!):
Number fourteen, she’d learned it when young.

Doesn't rhyme...but then I'm not that bright!