Biblical sonnets and sonnet sequences

[Julie]

Skald and I were talking in chat the other day about sonnet sequences in general and my biblical sonnets in particular. Here's an example of mine:



Abra speaks to Holofernes in confidence

Your head is heavy. I did not expect
that you would weigh so much, that you would pull
as if you thought a rock could be your neck,
the earth your shoulders. Both my hands are full

of hair, my mouth of blood and bile and dirt.
I carry you. She creeps along behind
and hides our trail, as silent in her skirts
as only death should be. Soldiers will find

us soon, find what I bear, and stake us to
the ground like tents. If Judith knew how near
I am to screaming just to end the wait

she would garrote me with her shining plait
and drop me empty in the sand. But you
mean more to her. She would not leave you here.


This story doesn't seem to be familiar to most Protestant audiences. The Book of Judith is not in most Protestant bibles, I think, so here is a link that might help explain things. Judith has killed Holofernes after he captured her during a battle, and her maid, Abra, is carrying his head to Judith's people to show what she has done.

I also wrote sonnets from the POV of Uriah, Keturah, Noah's neighbor, and Job's 20th child.

[maggenpye]

That was stunning.

I don't know the Bible well enough to contribute (Uriah means Dickens to me), but I'd like to see some of the others you've done.

[susan]

I like yours, Julie. I'll see if I can dig up one I wrote about Lilith, though it's not so much a telling as an exegesis.

[Julie]

Susan, please do dig that up!


Hey, maggenpye.

I'm no biblical expert, myself. Some of the stories just get under my skin, like Uriah's.

Uriah was Bathsheba's husband. King David (of David and Goliath fame) fell in love with Bathsheba, a married woman. David sent a letter to Uriah's commander, Joab, to have Uriah killed in battle so that David could have Bathsheba.

The biblical story doesn't deal with what Uriah would have been feeling. Or Abra in the sonnet I posted earlier. Or Keturah, Abraham's second wife (or maybe concubine. I don't know).


A Wheel of Birds

Who needs to read a letter when you know
what it will say? I heard my death spill out
like broken teeth from David's greedy mouth,
heard servants whispering how my wife goes

thick-waisted down the street. Why couldn't he
pick up a rock with his own hand and split
me like Goliath? I could bear the kiss
of stone--my flesh opened for birds that wheel

the chariot sky--if he would strike me down
himself. I've earned that, not a friend-held blade,
a scorpion in my blankets, poisoned grain.
I should run. It's too late. The hills around

me bloom with armies, ready to awaken.
Let Joab's eyes tell me that I'm mistaken.

[maggenpye]

Cool, definitely not so 'umble as the humble Heep.

[Skald the Rhymer]

How the deuce did I miss this thread?

I love that initial sonnet, Julie.

[Julie]

Thanks, Skald. I'm rather fond of the bugger myself.

I don't have much inclination to work on my sequence lately. Maybe someday.