“A poet is, before 
anything else, 
a person who is 
passionate in love 
with language.” 
W. H. Auden

I have no recollection of being exposed to poetry during my elementary school years. This is not to say that my class was never introduced to poetry. My lack of memory probably has more to do with my lack of interest in the literary form. My high school years were a different experience.

Beginning in freshman year, when I had to memorize The Cremation of Sam McGee, by Robert W. Service, my absolute distaste of poetry emerged. While I considered the poem to be quite amusing, the fact that I had to memorize it — all 68 lines! — left a bitter taste in my mouth.

In future high school English classes, when the need for what we studied was expected to be relevant, we were introduced to the works of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, Langston Hughes, and e.e. cummings. I should have been impressed with their writings, but I wasn’t. Nor was I enamored with the works of John Keats, T.S. Eliot, or Era Pound. Poetry just wasn’t my thing.

All this changed when I took a Renaissance Literature course at Santa Clara University. In that class, we studied Shakespeare’s sonnets. I can’t say that I enjoyed the experience, but I endured it. At the conclusion of the unit, the professor, Dr. Diane Dreher, informed us that it was our turn to write a perfect Shakespearean sonnet. We had about a week to complete the assignment.

Shakespearean sonnets have strict rules. The meter must be iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme must be A-B-A-B, C-D-C-D, E-F-E-F, GG. The first twelve lines are divided into three four-line quatrains. The poem ends with a two-line couplet. And that’s not all.

The three quatrains must present a dilemma or problem to be solved. The couplet must contain the solution or resolution to that problem. Simple as that, right? I immediately knew that this was one assignment I wasn’t going to complete successfully.

Almost a full week passed by. On Sunday night at about 10:00, the night before the due date, I sat down with a legal pad and pen to give it a shot. Problem and solution… Okay, should I attend my Renaissance Lit class or should I visit my girlfriend in the SCU dormitory?

Iambic pentameter… da-DA, da-DA, da-DA, da-DA, da-DA. I repeated this beat in my head over and over. Once I got the rhythm, I started putting words to it: “The time has come to saunter off to class…” Hey, that worked! So I thought about the second line: “…to learn of sonnets, lyric voice, and style.” That worked, too! But now I had to rhyme with “class” and “style.” Line three came to me quickly: “But I could stay and visit with my lass…” Yes! Then this: “…since midterms won’t be here for quite a while.” Quatrain one was finished! It took about five minutes. So I kept going.

“But what of Pico, Sidney, More, and Donne?
My mind should thirst to know their wit and ways.
Yet in my mind, there’s really only one
Whose beauty sets my loving heart ablaze.”

I kept writing. The next line is my favorite of the entire sonnet.

“Should knowledge, more than lust, my passions heed?
Or is this time I really can afford
to visit with the one I love and need —
the one who, for a year now, I’ve adored?”

Three quatrains in fifteen minutes. I was on a roll. All I needed was the couplet.

“Although it’s not the way that things should be,
more happiness my loved one gives to me.”

That’s it! A perfect Shakespearean sonnet… in twenty minutes! I couldn’t believe it. How did that happen? Where did all those words, with perfect meter and rhyme scheme, come from? It was a moment of awakening for me. I would come to realize that I have a gift for writing poetry.

I’ve composed dozens of poems through the years on a variety of topics. Most of these have required minimal time and effort. The words just seemed to flow. Did I develop a new-found appreciation for the poets I so despised in my high school years. No, I didn’t. My favorite poet, the one who has most inspired the poems I’ve written through the years, is none other than Shel Silverstein. He made poetry fun, entertaining, approachable, and easily understandable. 

I will always have a tremendous appreciation for Dr. Dreher at Santa Clara University for challenging me to write my first sonnet. Without that task, I may have never realized this gift with which I’ve been blessed.