"A sonnet is one of the most common and consistent forms of poetry, making it a good starting point for the study of poetry itself. While I could go into extensive detail on a sonnet's construction, all you really need to know is that it consists of fourteen lines and is most often written in iambic pentameter, basically meaning that each line consists of ten syllables. Again, I could go into more detail about meter, or the quatrains and couplets of the form, but this is all you really need to know to get started."
Yorick listened to Luthas' words intently, writing it all down in his notebook. Instead of stressing about that which he did not know presently, he wrote his questions down and struggled to keep from asking them until later. He knew that his mind's difficulty in coping with unanswered questions brought on that awful headache yesterday evening, so he was making an effort to force himself to learn how to deal with that.
Upon waking up, Luthas insisted on continuing with Yorick's lessons on becoming more civilized. Yorick thought that he had failed and that Luthas had given up, but when he said this Luthas only replied, "Yesterday proved that you still need much work before you can be a gentleman and that I was moving you far too quickly by putting you in a real-world setting as your first lesson. I believe that we will be more successful if we work our way there step-by-step instead, starting by introducing you to one of the activities of the sophisticated man: writing poetry!" Yorick had heard of poetry, but was thus far unable to distinguish between a poem and any other piece of writing. The only thing he understood in them was rhyming and even then it could be confusing sometimes.
Luthas paused to allow Yorick to finish writing before he continued. "Poetry tends to follow a pattern called a rhyme scheme. I assume you know what a rhyme is?" Yorick nodded his head. "Good. For sonnets, or at least the form of them we will be studying, it will be abbaabbacddcdc with each letter representing a different rhyme ending the line. Another kind uses ababcdcdefefgg, a much easier rhyme scheme, but we'll ignore that for now. Now, poems will always either tell a story or deliver a message, but most often they will do both. The message being delivered is usually something important to the poet, the inspiration for them writing the poem in the first place. In a sonnet there is usually a change after the first eight lines. For a storytelling one, the beginning sets up a setting and a problem and the portion after the change is the resolution. For the message, the two parts can be contrasting ideas, emotions, or images. Not actual images, just descriptions that make you imagine an image in your mind, something called imagery. Here is a sonnet I like called "An Echo From Willow-wood" as an example:
Two gazed into a pool, he gazed and she,
Not hand in hand, yet heart in heart, I think,
Pale and Reluctant on the water's brink
As on the brink of parting which must be.
Each eyed the other's aspect, she and he,
Each felt one hungering heart leap up and sink,
Each tasted bitterness which both must drink,
There on the brink of life's dividing sea.
Lilies upon the surface, deep below
Two wistful faces craving each for each,
Resolute and reluctant without speech: -
A sudden ripple made the faces flow
One moment joined, to vanish out of reach:
So those hearts joined, and ah! were parted so."
As Luthas recited the poem, he wrote it down in Yorick's notebook so that he could demonstrate its shape and style. Yorick looked at it, and then kept looking at it. He had learned grammar fairly well, but this poem broke many of its rules. As usual, Luthas knew what it was that was troubling Yorick. "Don't worry about whether or not its properly written. In poetry, that is a minimal concern. Poetry is art, and art is allowed to transcend typical conventions. Instead of thinking of it as breaking the rules of grammar, you could say that the rules didn't apply to it in the first place." This was a difficult concept to wrap his head around, but Yorick figured that Luthas knew what he was talking about so he decided to trust him. "Now, why don't you try one? All I need you to do is tell a story while following the restrictions of a sonnet."
Yorick was still struggling to figure out what Luthas' poem was saying. It did not make any sense to him. Hearts cannot hunger and leap, life does not own a sea, what was this bitterness they were drinking, and what was an aspect? These were only a few of the questions that came to Yorick's mind, many others filling his head less prominently. "I did not understand the sonnet, Luthas." He truly wanted to become a civilized gentleman, but he understood next to nothing about the poem so he had no choice but to ask. He began firing off all of his questions at once.
"Ah, I believe I see the problem, my friend. You have never felt love, have you?" Luthas' expression was filled with surprise as if love was something he expected everyone to have felt.
"I have. Love is a strong liking, and I have a strong liking for cooking, and learning, and the forest. It also means affection, and I hold affection for my parents and my friends."
"That isn't the love I am speaking of. Love is a feeling indescribable to those who have not felt it. It begins with another person. Your heart beats faster every time you look at that person, your mind can think of nothing else besides them, and you want to be with them at all times, just the two of you. It is when that person's happiness makes you smile, and their sadness brings you tears. You are two individuals, yet your hearts are connected so that you feel as one. The heart I speak of now is the part of you that commands all your emotions and desires, not the organ that pumps blood."
Now Yorick was even more confused. Who was this person who could do all that, and how could a person's brain be their heart if their heart is their heart? He asked Luthas once more.
"I suppose I cannot explain something like this. I hope you have the good fortune to experience it on your own someday, true love. However, I wish not upon you the loss suffered by the poem's protagonists." Luthas stood up and began heading for the door. "As much as I would like to continue teaching you, I have a class to get to and so do you. Don't bother going to the cafeteria because it is closed today. Even I do not know the reason. Goodbye for now, my friend." With that, he left.
Yorick looked at the clock. It appeared that he had been so engrossed in the lesson that he had completely lost track of time! How would he eat with the cafeteria closed, too? He looked back to the creature frozen in his closet and punched the side of its icy prison to break a hole into it large enough for him to tear off the hand on its tail as well as a chunk of the tail itself. It would have to do, because at this rate he would be late for sure. He burst out the door and began his sprint to the classroom, not wanting to miss a single word of sensei's lecture.
At his panic-increased top speed (in human form at least), it did not take Yorick very long at all to make it to class. On the way he noticed some people at a distance using weapons but he didn't have time to confront them about it so he simply yelled, "You must not use weapons on campus! It is against the rules!" He ran right past them, his loud words trailing behind as he tried to make it to class. Unfortunately, he was already too late. Class had already started by the time he burst through the door. He did not slow his speed until he reached a vacant seat near Cheryll and Allister, leaping into it and promptly starting to bite into his tail-hand. Once he had calmed down from his rush, he noticed a couple things: first, that there was a large cart full of food at the front of the classroom. He glanced at the severed limb he held in his hand for a moment then looked back at the cart. The meat looked especially tasty. However, he could not just leave the part of the creature he had taken uneaten. He decided that he would finish this first then eat the meat later. Besides, even though it was cold and frozen, the taste was still quite savory. Secondly, he noticed that there were new students. Once had a scent similar to Solo's and the other was the mage who called himself "Trix". Yorick hoped that sensei resolved the issue of Trix's illegal magic.
It appeared that sensei had already started teaching, since he was at the front of the classroom and there were already things drawn on the board. Yorick hurriedly opened his notebook and began to copy the drawings, simultaneously trying to make sense of them. That one is the graveyard, so graveyard at 10 am… what do aliens have to do with that? He pulled out his dictionary and looked up alien to see if there were more meanings to it.