Lately, I have been listening to a podcast series named Not Just the Tudors that takes us back to the 16th-century history in England and other parts of the world. This was a very dynamic time that saw the reformation spreading through the printing of books, and also the forming of new ways to govern nations (including Sweden). As part of this, I came across the playwright John Heywood who was that father, and in turn, John Donne who was related to John Heywood through his mother.

It must have been strange years when power shifted from Roman Catholic to Protestant as the regent’s faith shifted until Elizabeth I, though herself a protestant managed to find some level of compromise after the years of prosecutions from both sides by her father and half-siblings, Edward.

John Donne coming from Catholic faith and family had to live that out in secrecy and received a first-class education and wrote and published poetry with a strong metaphysical string, trying to reach “a true religion. Maybe today he would be seen as a liberal trying to reach a compromise between faiths and viewpoints, connecting back to his distant relative Thomas Moore and in turn Erasmus.

I must admit I have not read a lot of his poetry, and of course, his legacy is shadowed by his great contemporary William Shakespeare

Now for the prompt. Consider:

The Token by John Donne (1572-1631)

Send me some token, that my hope may live,
Or that my easeless thoughts may sleep and rest;
Send me some honey to make sweet my hive,
That in my passions I may hope the best.
I beg no ribbon wrought with thine own hands,
To knit our loves in the fantastic strain
Of new-touched youth; nor ring to show the stands
Of our affection, that as that’s round and plain,
So should our loves meet in simplicity;
No, nor the corals which thy wrist enfold,
Laced up together in congruity,
To show our thoughts should rest in the same hold;
No, nor thy picture, though most gracious,
And most desired, because best like the best;
Nor witty lines, which are most copious,
Within the writings which thou hast addressed.

Send me nor this, nor that, to increase my store,
But swear thou think’st ‘I love thee,’ and no more.

This poem that essentially has 4 alternatively rhymed quatrains (a/b/a/b c/d/c/d e/f/e/f g/h/g/h i/i) and a rhymed couplet. It has no designated arrival of the volta (but it may actually have more than one) but the concluding couplet should summarize the message. As was usual (or perhaps natural) a sonnet in this model should be written in iambic pentameter.

The name heroic sonnet is not unique and has been used for other forms (or topics), for instance by Milton that related more to the topic of a traditional sonnet.

Today I want you to explore this 18-line form, and since it is dVerse I want to give you a limited license to explore the form.

You may change the meter and the number of syllables  (but keep it consistent across the poem), and you may modify the rhyme scheme, but I want you to keep the structure with a concluding couplet summarizing the poem.

As usual, link up your poem below, visit and comment and participate in this great community. Explore the possibilities and learn from others.