Under the Florida Son
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poemme Florida Son
On Woodrow Wilson’s first Inaugural Day
A “man” was born. His father always called
Him Man. For instance, Archibald might say,
“Go do your hunting, Man.” Archie’d been galled
To have so many females in his life,
Was thrilled to have another male around
Instead of daughters, daughters, wife and wife.
The quite amazing fact that might confound
The cynics is the boy grew up to be
A princely gentleman, more decent, wise,
And charming than a president—and free
Inside his mind. He did fanaticize.
yoThat’s true, yet . . . among his many glories
yoyoWas telling his four Men his shining stories.
Just an easy fix to the final couplet if you want to save the meter (at the cost, yes, as is generally done, of making the unstressed extra final syllable of a “feminine” rhyme be the eleventh of the line). Something like:
That’s true, [and] yet . . . among his many glories
Was telling his four Men [those] shining stories.
Since you generally stick to the meter, might as well, it seems. Otherwise it really has trouble scanning.
Tom, thanks very much. Yes. I have changed the sonnet. I decided to keep the feminine rhyme. My reasoning in this instance was that in retrospect I slightly turned against his shining stories since some of them (I later learned) were shockingly fictional. These were his stories about his heroism in fighting and killing Japanese soldiers in WWII. He was not in the military. He was not in Japan (or Germany–or wherever). His heroism in these fighting stories was (pathetic?) fiction. Maybe that is altogether too harsh. Maybe he was just inspired and knew he could crack out a winning yarn–and did so. Anyway, the historical irony is that both his brother-in-law and Woodrow’s only brother (George) were both actually involved in the fighting. The brother-in-law was severely wounded (lost a lung). Neither of these men told stories about their war experiences. Mind you, they barely used words at all. I never confronted my father about these stories. He is not here to defend himself. Leave it.