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To all lovers of great poetry: thanks for going slumming here. The enclosed sonnets were mostly the work of a single year, and I am quite frankly so surprised to have written them that I wanted to share then with you. I hope you like them.
You may be able to tell that there are three batches of
sonnets in this book.
The first and largest is the group of sonnets I wrote for my lady,
Lady Alessandra Beatrice Desiderio (or, it was submitted to the
College of Heralds, and as I wrote it in poetry, Allesandre).
The second batch is made up of those sonnets I wrote for other SCA members; these are not all the people I love best in the SCA, but these are the sonnets that I was inspired to write. It's a curious collection, I admit, but I was not wholly in control of this process.
The final group of twelve is a single piece about Henry II and Eleanor of Acquitaine, who ruled England and much of Europe in the latter 12th century, my period. Writing this was the suggestion of Lady Suvdchin of Moritu.
As I said before, I hope you like this poetry; I don't mind admitting that I quite like some of it myself. And some of it I cringe to read. I am assured that this is a normal reaction for a poet to have to his own work.
Don't look for me to perform these in bardic comptitions. As Heinlein said, "The poet who reads his own work in public may have other nasty habits". I do, but that's not one of them.
Thanks are due to Lady Madeleine la Seule, who published many of these in It Cometh In the Mail; some of these have also appeared in The Steppesletter, and in The Elfsea Scroll.
Finally, I must acknowledge Master Thomas of Tenby, who taught me this form of poetry, and whose example of just sitting down and writing has been very good for me; also, H.L. Sinead Lauren Aithne Armagh (better known as Liran), who first encouraged me to write sonnets; and of course, my betrothed lady, Alessandra, who inspired the 4th sonnet I wrote, and (at least in part) all the rest.
All contents (c) 1994 by Paul T. Mitchell. All rights reserved.
