The Road of Life [char-sonnet]

The crush of life's ubiquitous
the press of life comes sharp & strong
you think you'll grapple quick with this?
the grip of life is gravely long

its violence so suave & sleek
it pulls you left & twirls you right
it dapples roses on your cheek
& conjures thorns before your sight

It winnows & it draws you on
reduction & anon increase!
each gloaming veils the morrow's dawn?
this road admits of scant surcease

through such a bright & bleak parade
whose features glimmer in what shade?

---

[for any who might object, saying this ain't a sonnet since it has 4 not 5 beats per line: okay, it's a new species (or variation), which we might variously dub the 4-beat-sonnet, the tetrametrical sonnet, or some other such modified moniker (call it the moon sonnet or the monkey sonnet or the sonnet sans bonnet, if you prefer). God invented many a number, not alone the five; perhaps, being shorter, we could dub this the sonnetine, sonatini, or for that matter the suniti or sonnetkinder or tinisonata? or -- what you will.

For those with additional doubts, I say: if Shakespeare could be so ornery as to alter, refigure, and (if you will) deform Petrarcha's ancient & pucca sonnet, who decrees I cannot (alike) fiddle a little while the moon doth shine? The odd fact is, I've long been blissfully unaware of this nattering 5-beat stricture, fashioning "sonnets" (as I supposed) of (at times) various metrical distances. But enough: this blog commenced with "sonnet" items farther afield from the classico-sonnet; those with gelid necks might best bring along a shawl withal.

ps: finally opated for "char" (Hindi: four) as the modifier.]