I Statement
by Paul Hoover
Sonnet 56 consists of 56 versions of Shakespeare’s sonnet of that number, produced from February to May of
2006. Many of the
2007. activities such as,
2008. “Noun Plus Seven”
2009. and “Word Ladder,”
2010. are influenced by
2011. Oulipo; others, such
2012. as “Villanelle,” “Jingle,”
2013. “Ballad,” “Flarf,” and
2014. “Blues,” are traditional
2015. literary or song
2016. forms; and some,
2017. including “Personal Ad,”
2018. “Chat Group,” “Course
2019. Description,” and “Mathematical,”
2020. are my own
2021. invention. The project
2022. began when I
2023. removed all but
2024. the end words
2025. of Shakespeare’s sonnet,
2026. selected because they
2027. were accessible to
2028. the postmodern ear,
2029. and asked my
2030. poetry students to
2031. fill in the
2032. rest without imagining
2033. that they were
2034. writing a sonnet.
2035. The results were
2036. wonderful, and I
2037. tried it myself.
2038. The results were
2039. mediocre. But then
2040. I created 55
2041. more versions, beginning
2042. with “Haikuisation” and
2043. “Homosyntactic Translation.” I
2044. soon realized that
2045. the series demanded
2046. a range of
2047. tones, from the
2048. comic to the
2049. serene and elegiac.
2050. No rule insists
2051. that procedural work
2052. must be ironic
2053. and entirely self-
2054. reflexive. Raymond Queneau’s
2055. Exercises in Style,
2056. 1947, was the
2057. “anticipatory plagiary.” But
2058. when I checked
2059. to see how
2060. much I had
2061. taken from it,
2062. very little was
2063. in evidence, except
2064. for “Sentence.” Aaron
2065. Shurin’s Involuntary Sonnets,
2066. 2005, offered the
2067. formal model for
2068. the work “End
2069. Words.” Some of
2070. my happiest moments
2071. came from writing
2072. in song forms,
2073. which are lyrical
2074. in the original
2075. sense, but take
2076. their greatest strengths
2077. from song’s performance
2078. aspect. Songs are
2079. purposive. They seek
2080. to calm, excite,
2081. awaken, and console.
2082. It’s important also
2083. to remember that
2084. Shakespeare’s sonnets were
2085. mostly love poems.
2086. With proceduralism as
2087. my chaperone, I
2088. was given permission
2089. to write in
2090. one of poetry’s
2091. richest veins. The
2092. innovative poem (the
2093. sonnet in 1596)
2094. invents what we
2095. later call tradition.
2096. Likewise, within the
2097. best innovative poetry
2098. is an echo
2099. of the past,
2100. a stable element
2101. such as rhyme,
2102. form, or richness
2103. of theme, which
2104. never loses its
2105. fire: love is
2106. found, love is
2107. lost, love is
2108. regained. The drama
2109. of that most
2110. established of themes
2111. shakes the lives
2112. of each generation.
2113. When it happens
2114. to us, it
2115. is fiercer and
2116. stranger than we
2117. could have imagined.
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