Aleatory Melodies
Are sonnets chancy music pieces, fey,
More like a mistress in a corset when
Victoria reigned? Do they lead astray
As some silk-corseted comedienne
Embarrasses with innuendo or
Their saucy message. Are they like twelve-tone
Sonatas rigidly controlled or more
Like Barraqué’s creations deftly sewn
With patterns freer than the serial
Composers writing strictly near in time
To him could manage? Tight, ethereal,
Sublime or tortured with a formal chime,
These sonnets and his pieces make their marks,
Their natures trapped like brains in hunting sharks.
Of course I’m really interested in sonnets about sonnets. I’m tripping over the meter in the third line of this one, however. I assume (from the meter) that the first word ought to be pronounced as three syllables, with the stress on the middle on, so you get two iambs to start the line: “Vic-TOR-ya REIGNED.”
But then you need to add an unstressed one-syllable word after that and before “Do,” right? Such as:
Victoria reigned. Or do they lead astray
Yes? That’s the only line that doesn’t scan for me as I read.