Do You Know?

Let us presume that I began an article this way:

“Today I should like to share with you two sonnets which I wrote more than sixty years ago when first I came to Trinidad and lived at San Fernando. They are entitled “Some Impressions of San Fernando.”

I

‘Tis early morn. I wake and from my bed / I see the steady glow of street lights near. / E’en as I look, the lights all disappear. / A still, soft dawn now takes their place instead. / And o’er the hills and all the land below, / A mystic white mist floats, while clouds, light grey, / Across the sky serenely make their way, / Meeting and merging as they onward go. / The distant trees, dark green, all stand, unstirred / By faintest breath of wind.

They seem to be / Mute sentinels who by their silence say / Their watch has well been kept. No sound is heard / To mar the quiet dawn. — But slowly, see, / The sun creeps up — bright herald of new day. /

II

Bright-tinted clouds now fleck the eastern sky, / And neighb’ring cocks all chant the same refrain. / Above the high red roofs white pigeons fly, / Pause, perch awhile, then poise for flight again. / A sleepy hand a window open throws, / Blinds half-way drawn let in new light and air; / And slowly by the scavenger’s cart goes, / The grey old mule by custom knowing where / To stop for refuse.

Harness clinking, then / He rattles on from door to door. / Footsteps of market women, working men / All hurry by, alert and keen once more. / Discarding night’s robe sans regret or pain / The world grows real — the city breathes again. /

Even the dumbest reader who “could not learn”.

(Do you remember the class from Jamaica?) could not fail to see the repetition of the letter “s” in Lines 2 and 4, and the repetition of other letters in succeeding lines in Sonnet 1 first of all.

I see the steady glow of street lights . . .

A still soft dawn now takes their place. . .

Examples first, to be followed by a definition after.

Another English Language lesson could begin with a definition of the word “alliteration,” followed by the examples from the sonnet.

(To be continued)