Sonnet with A Different Letter ...*
Starbuck, George (1931-)

O for a muse of fire, a sack of dough,
Or both!  O promissory notes of woe!
One time in Santa Fe N.M.
Ol' Winfield Townley Scott and I ... But whoa.

One can exert oneself,  ff ,
Or architect a heaven like Rimbaud,
Or if that seems, how shall I say,  de trop ,
One can at least write sonnets, a propos
Of nothing save the do-re-mi-fa-sol
Of poetry itself.  Is not the row
Of perfect rhymes, the terminal bon mot,
Obeisance enough to the Great O?

"Observe," said Chairman Mao to Premier Chou,
"On voyage ˆ Parnasse pour prendre les eaux.
On voyage comme poisson, incog."

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* Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line

The Oxford Book of American Light Verse (Harmon)

ff: fortissimo
de trop: too much
bon mot: clever saying

French sentences:
they travel to Paranssus to take the waters,
they travel as fish