Paean

by johannespunkt

O let me be forever lost! forever
snared in Demonweb, enwyrded, all
strung up in Fate, ordained by she who severs
lifethread if it please her, let me fall!
O let me fall – o Lolth be praised! – in your
black heart, o spider-mother! fanged and beckoning,
please hear my song! I shut the door,
now let us scheme, o there will be a reckoning,
O Lolth be praised! Let darkness shine!
Eternal night of Lolth! Be raised above us,
binding chaos, I kneel at your shrine,
O Demon Queen! o, you who do not love us.
Let the temples of your foes be razed,
O let you reign eternal, Lolth be praised!

~

Above is a sonnet in praise of Lolth, the spider-goddess. It was commissioned by my dear friend Pao, whom you may remember from this untitled guest /2014/03/11/guest-story-pao/, or her story blog: stories.panterdjuret.nu/.

And good news! You too can commission me to write a sonnet for you, for the meagre sum of eight dollars or more! (This one, by the way is meant to be read aloud, like all good praising songs. The form is in fact perfectly consistent with the Shakespearean sonnet (except maybe the lack of pronounced volta). The borrowing of syllables from other lines is intentional, because I believe anapestic substitution is a cop-out. If you commission a poem from me you can decide the topic, how strict it should be, and which sonnet tradition I should lean on, of course.) Please contact me on johannes dot punkt at gmail dot com.