"Principles of Growth" Sonnet Redoublé
All right, it's not the prequel you're all hoping for, but I'm willing to bet you'll be impressed anyway.
Why?
Because the sonnet redoublé is the most complicated sonnet sequence I've found. It comprises fifteen sonnets, the first fourteen forming a corona (i.e., the last line of each sonnet is the same as the first line of the next, and the last line of the last sonnet is the same as the first line of the first, completing the circle) and the last is formed from the fourteen linking lines, in order.
This one is a kaleidoscopic (i.e., fragmented and not presented in any sequential order) look at "Principles of Growth", with sonnets from House's, Wilson's, Chase's and Andromeda's perspectives.
1. House: Heresy
When hypocrisy’s cast in golden light
Then shadows must be thrown on by their speech:
They know they’ll have to bear, unless they fight,
Oppression of the State’s encroaching reach.
Why is it people, sheep-like, just stand mute?
He will not now admit wrong and repent:
He’ll bring to bear a truth they can’t refute,
And be the ringing voice of all dissent.
Outspoken heretics are sent to die
(Or worse) but they will not instead betray
Their principles in favor of the lie
Bound up as gospel back in ancient day.
“From sin”-that is, free will-“all must be freed.”
It is against all nature has decreed.
2. Andromeda: Creation
It is against all nature has decreed,
But she’s past questioning: she has begun.
The powers called will see and grant her need,
And weave a daughter’s gifts into her son.
Imagining her sisters all aghast,
Shocked whispers, steel-cold eyes that brim with scorn
Are not enough to hold intention fast:
This scheme, conceived, now clamors to be born.
In memory, Alcyone still weeps
For her firstborn-a human gone to dust.
This work cannot be wrong, not if it keeps
Her child beside her-Goddess, it must!
O Time, why such a dreadful price incurred?
Before such torture, reason’s struck absurd.
3. Wilson: Aftermath
Before such torture, reason’s struck absurd:
Surely than this the better choice is death.
What grotesque mutilation has occurred-
Far worse than ceasing their heartbeats and breath.
The light in House’s eyes has been snuffed out,
His penetrating gaze now fixed and flat;
And that Minerva’s lost he cannot doubt:
If they were whole, she’d never cry out that
Litany, voice gone animal in pain,
And House would hold her fast against his heart
Until they were collected, calm again-
He’s apathetic now that they’re apart.
No benevolent god condoned this deed.
No answer’s left that anyone could read.
4. House: Interregnum
No answer’s left that anyone could read,
No logic here that even he could guess.
Within his chest the ache of thwarted need,
A pain only her presence could redress.
But unforgiving steel now bars the way,
And so he sits alone, hands pressed to heart:
No comforting warm weight, naught but to say
Their truth survives, though they’ll be torn apart.
Eyes closed against the drabness of the walls,
He walks the labyrinth of memory:
They argued, forgave, laughed and he recalls
Those things that he let only Wilson see.
This devastation works to no one’s gain.
This is a journey fraught with too much pain.
5. Wilson: Sacrifice
This is a journey fraught with too much pain,
To cast a life-deep bond beneath a knife-
And yet to stay intact, go home again
When wholeness' price is his partner’s life…
Magic’s no miracle; he’s undeceived,
And knows too well the price he’ll likely pay,
But whence House has been sent, he’ll be retrieved,
Though from each other they’ll be cut away.
He clutches Rona close and says goodbye;
In their joint heart, fierce love and terror war-
But this call is one they cannot defy,
This loss one they cannot live to endure.
He prays for House to wake and understand
This sacrifice: some higher law’s demand.
6. Andromeda: Descent
This sacrifice, some higher law’s demand:
There has to be some meaning she can find.
Was this agony spun by Morai’s hand,
That works to crush her heart and break her mind?
She will not leave, but cannot bear to stay
When all she is still urges her to fly.
She used to think that there might be some way
To lead a human life, but can’t deny
What she was born to be: a being of air,
Who rides upon the swift back of each wind.
Rowan can’t understand, or even care:
He’d just scold, “Anne!” and tell her that she’d sinned.
Even the burn of gin won’t dull the pain:
No mercy in this unforgiving strain.
7. Chase: Seminary
No mercy in this unforgiving strain,
Concealing heresy with pious mask.
He knows to fall in line ‘hind clergy’s train,
And make submissive worship seem his task.
But as he chants the prayers, his soul repeats
The words of praise to Her they learnt in youth-
And when he prays to Mary, that conceit’s
Enough: no one who hears will guess the truth.
The scorn and neglect meted out for years
Were repaid: justice wrapped in fury’s heat.
But justice could not dry his helpless tears,
Couldn’t make devastation less complete.
No one left his nature to understand;
No one to anchor him with steady hand.
8. Andromeda: Guardian
No one to anchor him with steady hand,
Save her, so she denies her birthright’s call:
Every beat of her heart cries a demand,
But she cannot take flight and let him fall.
She promised long ago she’d never leave,
That on the path he walked she’d be his guide.
But still, for all she’s lost she has to grieve:
A bleeding wound betrays two worlds’ divide.
Her child, though, is worth even that price:
He grows and laughs and learns and loves and plays,
And her pretense is worth the sacrifice
When it means he can watch and learn her ways.
But still her longings go unrealized,
Locked in a cage that cruelty devised.
9. Chase: Helpless
Locked in a cage that cruelty devised-
Seeing her now, what else is there to think?
Is this what Rowan wanted, realized?
(Seething, he pours full bottles down the sink.)
Once she was exultant, strong and free:
Why is it that fierce power's disappeared?
He doesn’t need the gift she gave to see
That this will end exactly as he feared.
No matter how he yells or begs or cries
She still fills glasses with astringent death-
Why is it that no matter what he tries,
It seems that he’s only wasting his breath?
Tears spill as he kneels down against the door:
It’s what’s essential that he reaches for.
10. House: Terminus
It’s what’s essential that he reaches for:
The knowledge that he’s right is all that counts.
He tries not to look out the cage’s door,
But still he sees the blade, and terror mounts.
To know this is the end, know all they’ll lose
When cold steel cuts the cord that makes them one…
If he could do it over, would he choose
To speak out still, knowing what he’d begun?
No time for fear. No time even to speak,
Except the few brief words that pass within:
At least, he thinks, they never once were weak
Enough to say their nature was a sin.
Better death than complicity in lies:
Their inner truth won’t tolerate disguise.
11. Andromeda: Resolve
Their inner truth won’t tolerate disguise;
No words silence the cry of blood betrayed.
To shed the human mask would let them rise,
But reason stands against that path arrayed:
Her child needs her still, to guide and teach,
And she dare not take him away with her.
Rowan would extend all the Church’s reach
(Another truth that she cannot defer).
But Callisto was right: to live this lie
Will only grind her soul into the dust.
If staying for him means that they will die…
They’ll bear the consequences, as they must.
There are some things worth sacrificing for:
They know to stand unyielding and endure.
12. Chase: Departure
They know to stand unyielding and endure,
And also to hide what they truly are-
But some atrocities they can’t ignore;
This mutilation takes Church creed too far.
They’ve played their part. Now they arrange to leave
And build a life they won’t have to conceal.
Perhaps through human means he can achieve
At least the spirit of his gift, and heal.
That path ends in an office walled in glass,
Beside a man whose genius brightly burns;
And whose exploits none ever could surpass,
Whose risks yield near-miraculous returns.
He fears for House, driven towards truth and right:
Why is it heresy to dare to fight?
13. House: Outspoken
Why is it heresy to dare to fight?
They cannot follow, docile, ‘hind the crowd.
They know enough those gilded lies to blight;
Won't hide the knowledge they can speak aloud.
It’s a risk, but one someone has to take,
And love of truth outweighs potential fear.
Somehow, they vow, they’ll shock the world awake;
They’ll find the words society must hear.
If heresy’s refusing to believe
That it’s by bloodshed paradise is built,
He won’t say otherwise, and so deceive:
He will not feel one fleeting instant’s guilt
When zealotry would destroy all that’s right;
When hypocrisy's cast in golden light.
14. Wilson: Waiting
When hypocrisy's cast in golden light,
He sees a regime 'gainst all natural laws.
To say that blind obedience is right-
Surely for that there is no valid cause.
Fears gnaw at him with every brazen chance
House takes. This charge, nightmares borne into day.
No sharp invective or withering glance
Will shield against the perils in his way.
Please let them stop at candle, book and bell,
For what’s beyond the grave is far surpassed
By imposition of a mortal hell
Beyond any soul’s power to outlast-
To that terror, death is to be preferred:
It is annihilation in a word.
15. Sonnet Redoublé: Intercision
It is annihilation, in a word;
It is against all nature has decreed.
Before such torture reason’s struck absurd:
No answer’s left that anyone could read.
This is a journey fraught with too much pain,
This sacrifice some higher law’s demand:
No mercy in this unforgiving strain,
No one to anchor him with steady hand.
Locked in a cage that cruelty devised,
It’s what’s essential that he reaches for:
Their inner truth won’t tolerate disguise.
They know to stand unyielding and endure.
Why is it heresy to dare to fight
When hypocrisy’s cast in golden light?
Author's Notes:
In sonnet two, 'Alcyone' is pronounced 'Al-see-oh-nee.' Only one reference was made to her in "Principles"; she is Andromeda's oldest sister.
In sonnet six, 'Morai' is the singular of 'Moirae'-the collective name used by the Greeks to refer to the Fates. More information here.
In sonnet fourteen, the line "Please let them stop at candle, book and bell" refers to a ritual of excommunication once used by the Roman Catholic Church. After the ceremonial excommunication, the book (symbolizing the Book of Life) was closed, the candle thrown to the ground and extinguished, symbolizing the lost soul, and the bell rung to denote a spiritual death.
Why?
Because the sonnet redoublé is the most complicated sonnet sequence I've found. It comprises fifteen sonnets, the first fourteen forming a corona (i.e., the last line of each sonnet is the same as the first line of the next, and the last line of the last sonnet is the same as the first line of the first, completing the circle) and the last is formed from the fourteen linking lines, in order.
This one is a kaleidoscopic (i.e., fragmented and not presented in any sequential order) look at "Principles of Growth", with sonnets from House's, Wilson's, Chase's and Andromeda's perspectives.
1. House: Heresy
When hypocrisy’s cast in golden light
Then shadows must be thrown on by their speech:
They know they’ll have to bear, unless they fight,
Oppression of the State’s encroaching reach.
Why is it people, sheep-like, just stand mute?
He will not now admit wrong and repent:
He’ll bring to bear a truth they can’t refute,
And be the ringing voice of all dissent.
Outspoken heretics are sent to die
(Or worse) but they will not instead betray
Their principles in favor of the lie
Bound up as gospel back in ancient day.
“From sin”-that is, free will-“all must be freed.”
It is against all nature has decreed.
2. Andromeda: Creation
It is against all nature has decreed,
But she’s past questioning: she has begun.
The powers called will see and grant her need,
And weave a daughter’s gifts into her son.
Imagining her sisters all aghast,
Shocked whispers, steel-cold eyes that brim with scorn
Are not enough to hold intention fast:
This scheme, conceived, now clamors to be born.
In memory, Alcyone still weeps
For her firstborn-a human gone to dust.
This work cannot be wrong, not if it keeps
Her child beside her-Goddess, it must!
O Time, why such a dreadful price incurred?
Before such torture, reason’s struck absurd.
3. Wilson: Aftermath
Before such torture, reason’s struck absurd:
Surely than this the better choice is death.
What grotesque mutilation has occurred-
Far worse than ceasing their heartbeats and breath.
The light in House’s eyes has been snuffed out,
His penetrating gaze now fixed and flat;
And that Minerva’s lost he cannot doubt:
If they were whole, she’d never cry out that
Litany, voice gone animal in pain,
And House would hold her fast against his heart
Until they were collected, calm again-
He’s apathetic now that they’re apart.
No benevolent god condoned this deed.
No answer’s left that anyone could read.
4. House: Interregnum
No answer’s left that anyone could read,
No logic here that even he could guess.
Within his chest the ache of thwarted need,
A pain only her presence could redress.
But unforgiving steel now bars the way,
And so he sits alone, hands pressed to heart:
No comforting warm weight, naught but to say
Their truth survives, though they’ll be torn apart.
Eyes closed against the drabness of the walls,
He walks the labyrinth of memory:
They argued, forgave, laughed and he recalls
Those things that he let only Wilson see.
This devastation works to no one’s gain.
This is a journey fraught with too much pain.
5. Wilson: Sacrifice
This is a journey fraught with too much pain,
To cast a life-deep bond beneath a knife-
And yet to stay intact, go home again
When wholeness' price is his partner’s life…
Magic’s no miracle; he’s undeceived,
And knows too well the price he’ll likely pay,
But whence House has been sent, he’ll be retrieved,
Though from each other they’ll be cut away.
He clutches Rona close and says goodbye;
In their joint heart, fierce love and terror war-
But this call is one they cannot defy,
This loss one they cannot live to endure.
He prays for House to wake and understand
This sacrifice: some higher law’s demand.
6. Andromeda: Descent
This sacrifice, some higher law’s demand:
There has to be some meaning she can find.
Was this agony spun by Morai’s hand,
That works to crush her heart and break her mind?
She will not leave, but cannot bear to stay
When all she is still urges her to fly.
She used to think that there might be some way
To lead a human life, but can’t deny
What she was born to be: a being of air,
Who rides upon the swift back of each wind.
Rowan can’t understand, or even care:
He’d just scold, “Anne!” and tell her that she’d sinned.
Even the burn of gin won’t dull the pain:
No mercy in this unforgiving strain.
7. Chase: Seminary
No mercy in this unforgiving strain,
Concealing heresy with pious mask.
He knows to fall in line ‘hind clergy’s train,
And make submissive worship seem his task.
But as he chants the prayers, his soul repeats
The words of praise to Her they learnt in youth-
And when he prays to Mary, that conceit’s
Enough: no one who hears will guess the truth.
The scorn and neglect meted out for years
Were repaid: justice wrapped in fury’s heat.
But justice could not dry his helpless tears,
Couldn’t make devastation less complete.
No one left his nature to understand;
No one to anchor him with steady hand.
8. Andromeda: Guardian
No one to anchor him with steady hand,
Save her, so she denies her birthright’s call:
Every beat of her heart cries a demand,
But she cannot take flight and let him fall.
She promised long ago she’d never leave,
That on the path he walked she’d be his guide.
But still, for all she’s lost she has to grieve:
A bleeding wound betrays two worlds’ divide.
Her child, though, is worth even that price:
He grows and laughs and learns and loves and plays,
And her pretense is worth the sacrifice
When it means he can watch and learn her ways.
But still her longings go unrealized,
Locked in a cage that cruelty devised.
9. Chase: Helpless
Locked in a cage that cruelty devised-
Seeing her now, what else is there to think?
Is this what Rowan wanted, realized?
(Seething, he pours full bottles down the sink.)
Once she was exultant, strong and free:
Why is it that fierce power's disappeared?
He doesn’t need the gift she gave to see
That this will end exactly as he feared.
No matter how he yells or begs or cries
She still fills glasses with astringent death-
Why is it that no matter what he tries,
It seems that he’s only wasting his breath?
Tears spill as he kneels down against the door:
It’s what’s essential that he reaches for.
10. House: Terminus
It’s what’s essential that he reaches for:
The knowledge that he’s right is all that counts.
He tries not to look out the cage’s door,
But still he sees the blade, and terror mounts.
To know this is the end, know all they’ll lose
When cold steel cuts the cord that makes them one…
If he could do it over, would he choose
To speak out still, knowing what he’d begun?
No time for fear. No time even to speak,
Except the few brief words that pass within:
At least, he thinks, they never once were weak
Enough to say their nature was a sin.
Better death than complicity in lies:
Their inner truth won’t tolerate disguise.
11. Andromeda: Resolve
Their inner truth won’t tolerate disguise;
No words silence the cry of blood betrayed.
To shed the human mask would let them rise,
But reason stands against that path arrayed:
Her child needs her still, to guide and teach,
And she dare not take him away with her.
Rowan would extend all the Church’s reach
(Another truth that she cannot defer).
But Callisto was right: to live this lie
Will only grind her soul into the dust.
If staying for him means that they will die…
They’ll bear the consequences, as they must.
There are some things worth sacrificing for:
They know to stand unyielding and endure.
12. Chase: Departure
They know to stand unyielding and endure,
And also to hide what they truly are-
But some atrocities they can’t ignore;
This mutilation takes Church creed too far.
They’ve played their part. Now they arrange to leave
And build a life they won’t have to conceal.
Perhaps through human means he can achieve
At least the spirit of his gift, and heal.
That path ends in an office walled in glass,
Beside a man whose genius brightly burns;
And whose exploits none ever could surpass,
Whose risks yield near-miraculous returns.
He fears for House, driven towards truth and right:
Why is it heresy to dare to fight?
13. House: Outspoken
Why is it heresy to dare to fight?
They cannot follow, docile, ‘hind the crowd.
They know enough those gilded lies to blight;
Won't hide the knowledge they can speak aloud.
It’s a risk, but one someone has to take,
And love of truth outweighs potential fear.
Somehow, they vow, they’ll shock the world awake;
They’ll find the words society must hear.
If heresy’s refusing to believe
That it’s by bloodshed paradise is built,
He won’t say otherwise, and so deceive:
He will not feel one fleeting instant’s guilt
When zealotry would destroy all that’s right;
When hypocrisy's cast in golden light.
14. Wilson: Waiting
When hypocrisy's cast in golden light,
He sees a regime 'gainst all natural laws.
To say that blind obedience is right-
Surely for that there is no valid cause.
Fears gnaw at him with every brazen chance
House takes. This charge, nightmares borne into day.
No sharp invective or withering glance
Will shield against the perils in his way.
Please let them stop at candle, book and bell,
For what’s beyond the grave is far surpassed
By imposition of a mortal hell
Beyond any soul’s power to outlast-
To that terror, death is to be preferred:
It is annihilation in a word.
15. Sonnet Redoublé: Intercision
It is annihilation, in a word;
It is against all nature has decreed.
Before such torture reason’s struck absurd:
No answer’s left that anyone could read.
This is a journey fraught with too much pain,
This sacrifice some higher law’s demand:
No mercy in this unforgiving strain,
No one to anchor him with steady hand.
Locked in a cage that cruelty devised,
It’s what’s essential that he reaches for:
Their inner truth won’t tolerate disguise.
They know to stand unyielding and endure.
Why is it heresy to dare to fight
When hypocrisy’s cast in golden light?
Author's Notes:
In sonnet two, 'Alcyone' is pronounced 'Al-see-oh-nee.' Only one reference was made to her in "Principles"; she is Andromeda's oldest sister.
In sonnet six, 'Morai' is the singular of 'Moirae'-the collective name used by the Greeks to refer to the Fates. More information here.
In sonnet fourteen, the line "Please let them stop at candle, book and bell" refers to a ritual of excommunication once used by the Roman Catholic Church. After the ceremonial excommunication, the book (symbolizing the Book of Life) was closed, the candle thrown to the ground and extinguished, symbolizing the lost soul, and the bell rung to denote a spiritual death.