Doctoral Dissertation: Information Expansion Techniques for the Shakespearean Sonnet

DOCTORAL  DISSERTATION:
  INFORMATION EXPANSION TECHNIQUES
  FOR   THE   SHAKESPEAREAN   SONNET

    

RENDEZVOUS IN SPACE

For a thousand years we have scrabbled after fish heads, but
now we have a reason to live--to learn, to discover, to be free!
--Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

SPUTNIK I

                     I was the only pilgrim born to soar
                     Above this noisy Earth. In solitude,
                     I will soon play among the stars--explore
                     The space where moons and planets slowly brewed--
                     And then I heard your cry around the world.
                     At last, I knew there was another. Your
                     Despairing voice has faded as you hurled
                     Adroitly seeking someone to adore.
                     The solitary bird of passage perched
                     Upon this precious pedestal now thirsts
                     For this friend for which he has searched and searched--                     But hopes are quickly smashed as metal bursts.
                     When will two kindred spirits such as these
                     Commune, one with another, as they please?






                                      MARYA MOREVNA

                   Your art is diligent and professional, but cartlike, and in
                   an age of rockets it is doomed! --Yevgeny Yevtsushenko *

                  The blasting roar of rocket motors throw
                  Her through the summer sky. She will endure
                  The waiting. Her pale-green gown can but show
                  The curves proclaiming that she is mature.
                  She reminisces reckless youthful days,
                  The Vanguard-Sputnik days when she was first
                  In space and young Apollo only plays
                  At chasing her around the world--then burst!
                  He did not die, though he was wimpy and
                  Weak; and eighteen sequestered years have wrought
                  Body and mind--matured the plans he's planned,
                  The dreams he's dreamed, the power he has sought . . . .                   Relaxing her alluring body, she
                  Rests on a bed of stars and dreams of me.

                     * Permission to use the quotation was granted to me by Yevgeny Yevtsushenko.
                       The translation from Russian to English is mine.






                                           APOLLO

                  Adornd she was indeed, and lovely to attract thy Love,
                  not thy Subjection. --John Milton, Paradise Lost

                  Foes wish me, like Prometheus, chained to this
                  Rock they call the Earth, forever tortured by
                  A Proxmire vulture, so that I would miss
                  My only chance for you and wish to die,
                  But racing roaring rocket motors leave
                  Them all below and now the search begins.
                  Strong, sharp eyes scan the summer sky. Believe
                  I will find you! If I fail, no one wins.
                  There are no chaperons up this high. Why
                  Should I not stare at your posh, pale-green gown?
                  The plans I've planned are working well. Soon I
                  Am moving up and closer, closer, down
                  And closer. Contact! Now we can commune,
                  For we are mind to mind--but must part soon.