Whāt Has (Mother) Nature Done?

(Spenserian Sonnet)

The Spenserian sonnet is unique in that the quatrains are interlocked by their rime. The rime scheme is given by abab bcbc cdcd ee with the volta always occurring at the final couplet. The sonnet is classified as Italian because it only has five rimes. Spenser’s form was not very popular, but it is very beautiful.

Behold! The fields are flushed with color red!
⠀ Methinks not blood, but blood it may well be.
⠀ Behold the sight! Nay turn my head instead,
⠀ Avert mine eyes, this travesty I see.
Their sound! They sound as one and all agree
⠀ That greatness comes in numbers more than one.
⠀ Who strives to flee their common repartee
⠀ Of dry repeated-ness and stories spun?
But lo! Their faces greet the noonday sun;
⠀ All 'tempt to dull her with their feign eclipse—
⠀ So many, what has Mother Nature done?
⠀ She stands aside, her hands upon her hips:
I wonder if the grass is truly green;
⠀ With poppies tall, the grass is rarely seen.

What are we looking at? Something of beauty in nature or something horrific in the human race? The point is both can occur simultaneously. Depends how you look at it. Oh, those tall poppies!

Spenserian = Edmund Spenser (1552/1553—January 13, 1599) His exact date of birth is unknown because the parish records for the area of London he was born were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.