The sonnet below is a recent addition to my ongoing accumulation the Odes, Epigrams & Further Sonnets. Its title derives from its being a variant - some might call it a corruption - of a Chaucerian sonnet. A Chaucerian sonnet consists in a pair of Rhyme Royal, the latter being the seven line stanza used by Chaucer in Troilus & Criseyde and The Parliament of Fowles. Rhyme Royal has an ababbcc rhyme scheme, whereas the two stanzas composing my sonnet have an ababcbc rhyme scheme.
A couple of days after writing my sonnet, I prevailed upon AI to set it to music in the style of the Lacrymosa from Mozart's Requiem in D Minor, with I think surprisingly successful results.
XLII
Unroyal Rhyme
The Bell, Hillgrove Street, 10 April 2026
What barbarism’s this? What unfresh Hell?
Hot pants, obese, vermillion pillbox fez:
The Look-At-Me is clanging in The Bell.
He’s Sexy Lexy now; his deadname’s “Les”.
His pancake makeup shadows eight hours’ beard
And crinkles like cheap concrete as he yells.
He isn’t even queer, he’s simply weird,
His ring-encrusted digits hoist his drink:
Red Stripe or Amstel? Lager anyway.
False eyelash flutters caterpillar wink,
Ear-splitting laughter, desperately gay.
He rises, plants upon the floor huge feet,
And sashays out, ambassador of kink,
And in the ladies widdles on the seat.
