Franklin Sterling’s verse combines vocabularly from Old English, Middle English and the modern language. He draws on established stanzaic forms, using lines defined by the number of syllables and rhyme schemes dictated by the type of stanza.
Daphne + Apollo
Lyf seameth the mer
chas like this ihwer.
Wot ssamuol trace her
charge to the ton
who’d dar
me to yond hedge,
and whose verry hot lusts…!
My sides of bark giveth wont to
the mowth.
E
Things unsought, done to the voice,
to a the be weak, know: the be strang, rejoice!
Epigram
Whaat wille woorthy of the wurm on stemn?
I’ll live for-ever, waiting one apopthegm.
Slowly, a pose that hys wretched noms begem.
A Hole in the Sky
Wyndous lien,
eac pane broken
(euery thing falls a part)
as offt sehen,
how thaie open.
