lit_luminary (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lit_luminary) wrote2010-11-21 05:47 am
lit_luminary) wrote2010-11-21 05:47 am
Sonnet Redoublé: The Tyrant
Title: Sonnet Redoublé: The Tyrant
Author: lit_luminary
Rating: PG for concepts.
Summary: Various perspectives on Chase's decision to kill Dibala and its aftermath.
Note: The sonnet redoublé is a highly structured form, consisting of fifteen sonnets. The first fourteen form a corona (i.e., the last line of the first is the first line of the second, and so on until the loop closes), and the fifteenth comprises, in order, the fourteen linking lines.
1. House to Chase: Cover
Your plan is executed; your game’s won—
So long as I conceal this single tell.
There is no need to punish what you’ve done.
I know that you have fashioned your own hell.
I’ll lie for you as you have lied for me,
And put this last discrepancy to rest.
Not words, but deeds, best repay loyalty,
And yours exceeds what I’d deserved or guessed.
Say everything proceeded by the book;
Point out the data that I’ll have supplied.
Give explanation, and they’ll overlook:
No one will question why the tyrant died.
Just one deception more will make this right.
Don’t talk of tyrants or a nation’s plight.
2. Father Prange to Chase: Absolution
Don’t talk of tyrants or a nation’s plight:
There’s no excuse to make for sins like yours.
To take another’s life was not your right;
Forgiveness doesn’t lie behind these doors.
Remember the commandment set in stone:
The words of God, the mortal act forbade.
Confess to earthly law if you’d atone—
Why do you look at me as though betrayed?
Pray to the Virgin Mother, to her Son,
To the Father for their mercy, undeserved.
Pray that you won’t be damned for what you’ve done;
Pray your immortal soul might be preserved.
Go. Give to justice what it must demand.
You chose to kill. Conviction led your hand.
3. Chase: Guilt
You chose to kill. Conviction led your hand.
So speak the pangs of conscience, and of guilt.
I’ve crossed a line. And now I understand
I have to thread the maze of lies I’ve built.
I’ve said that nothing’s wrong a dozen times;
I’ve left our bed and gone before she wakes.
It gets worse every day: the tension climbs,
And I know what will happen when it breaks.
I want things to continue as they were,
Want to deny the price already paid.
And I wish that I could confide in her,
That she would understand and stay, and aid—
Help drown the thoughts I can’t escape at night.
To steal a life—don’t think it was your right.
4. Foreman to Chase: Condemnation
To steal a life—don’t think it was your right.
No rationale absolves you from this crime.
There’s no excuse: the lines are black and white,
And you have gone beyond too far this time.
You played me for a fool. Our patient died.
Do you think numbers balance moral scales?
Cold-blooded murder’s never justified—
‘First, do no harm’ is not a rule that fails.
And yet the massacre is at a pause:
Involve the law, and slaughter would commence.
A dead man’s plans would swift become a cause,
So unjust logic stands in your defense.
You should have kept your oaths and stayed your hand.
Don’t think you brought peace to a war-torn land.
5. House to Chase: Advice (I)
Don’t think you brought peace to a war-torn land—
Still, close enough for your conscience’s sake.
I see the grays you do, and understand
The choices only ruthlessness can make.
You knew the numbers, the equation solved:
Kill just one man, preserve two million lives.
You chose to pay the moral costs involved:
Right can’t be done when innocence survives.
So don’t lament that the dictator bled—
I’ll tell you now: he isn’t worth remorse.
Don’t think you should be martyred in his stead.
You’ve proven you won’t break, so stay the course.
You knew the price that killing would extract.
Once challenged, though, you rose and dared to act.
6. House to Chase: Progress
Once challenged, though—you rose and dared to act.
Pushed hard enough, you pushed back and you thrived.
I forged in you the mettle that you’d lacked,
And the result was more than I’d contrived.
It never was a question of your skill,
But rather teaching you to stand, not bend.
You learned, and now I see you can and will
Translate the means to necessary end.
I fired you three years ago: a test.
You passed. If you return, I’ll let you stay.
I find I’m almost proud how you’ve progressed.
Don’t let your wife tell you to run away,
Or mold yourself to what she wants to see.
You’re stronger than I’d guessed that you would be.
7. House to Chase: Advice (II)
You’re stronger than I’d guessed that you would be.
This crucible will make you stronger still.
You’ve learned a truth that so few choose to see:
That sometimes, healing means you have to kill.
You still fear the damnation you were taught;
You don’t want to admit the ways you’ve grown.
I see the damage guilt and shame have wrought,
The cage you’ve built. The key is yours alone,
For moral lines aren’t etched in stone, but sand:
They vanish when they must; they shift and fade.
You changed and will redraw them. Understand
You are the sum of every choice you’ve made.
There was no question that you had to act.
But now, what will occur after the fact?
8. Chase to House: Loyalties
But now, what will occur after the fact?
Perhaps you know, the way you knew I lied.
By your aid, my deceptions stayed intact,
So harsh demands of law will go denied.
We’re tied by every lesson that you taught,
By all the understandings left unsaid.
I’ll cope, somehow, with what my actions wrought,
But can you help me find the way ahead?
I’m here because you’re all that I still trust,
The only one who wouldn’t see a sin.
The certainties I held before are dust.
Tell me how to rebuild, and I’ll begin.
What answers are there even you can see
When truth condemns instead of setting free?
9. House to Chase: Practicalities
When truth condemns instead of setting free
Then silence is the hardest lie to learn.
Don’t speak and make your life this choice’s fee:
Take no more steps from which you can’t return.
The vow you swore existed but to break;
The harm you did to one saved millions more.
What other path could a pragmatist take?
Far worse to save the one and damn the score.
So count the blood your actions didn’t shed.
Let logic give you comfort; let it stand.
The facts are these: an evil man is dead.
His people owe their lives to what you planned.
When rules are senseless, wise men question why—
We really aren’t so different, you and I.
10. Cameron to Chase: Schism
We really aren’t so different, you and I:
At least alike enough to share a life.
I thought that once. But now I find your lie
Has cut the bonds between us like a knife,
For murder is beyond me to forgive,
Beyond redress by words, by guilt or shame.
It isn’t yours to choose who gets to live—
But it’s not at your feet I place the blame.
House taught you how to play at being God,
That human lives are puzzles to be solved.
You’re walking the same path that he once trod.
I see your end and find myself resolved.
This certainty’s the weight of any stone:
That your choices will not reflect my own.
11. Chase to Cameron: Farewells
That your choices will not reflect my own—
I know. I only hoped that you would stay.
When you pack up and leave me here alone,
I’ll mourn the future that I cast away:
The dreams of children, of the home we’d build,
The joyous years the two of us had planned—
I knew the tyrant wasn’t all I’d killed.
I knew that you could never understand.
You see a line dividing white and black;
I see the grays, the subtleties of shade.
I made a choice, and wouldn’t take it back—
But love, I do regret you were betrayed.
I know you have to leave, and I know why:
The marks of playing God won’t fade and die.
12. Chase: Greater Good
The marks of playing God won’t fade and die.
When did this choice become one I could make?
The silence that I keep cannot deny
The truth of every oath I dared to break.
But how could ‘Do no harm’ mean shedding blood
By healing one who’d plotted genocide?
The tyrant’s death just might hold back the flood,
And if I’ve damned myself—at least I tried
To serve the greater good, the larger whole.
I once had faith, hoped that God could be just.
Now, do I still believe I have a soul?
There is so little left that I can trust.
Is murder ever something to condone?
Some lines, once crossed, are etched as if in stone.
13. House to Chase: Mentorship
Some lines, once crossed, are etched as if in stone:
Who knows unfading scars better than I?
When bridges burn, there’s no chance to atone,
So turn away. Don’t watch the embers die.
I’d tell you what I never once was told:
You did the needful thing, and you were right.
But words can’t heal, and you can’t be consoled;
Nothing I say will help you sleep at night.
The most that I can do is keep you here,
And watch, and wait, and meddle where I must.
I see your pain, your losses and your fear,
But also see that I still have your trust.
Stay; stand by what your actions have begun.
Don’t talk of guilt; don’t dwell on what you’ve done.
14. House to Chase: Advice (III)
Don’t talk of guilt; don’t dwell on what you’ve done.
The time for guilt is over, come and passed.
For what good can remorse do anyone?
Regrets don’t matter; only actions last.
Don’t grieve your marriage ended in divorce:
You never could have borne your truths denied
Or been the man she wanted, walked the course
She set for you. (I know how hard you tried.)
And you retained far more than what you lost,
So I would count the end result a gain.
It’s simple math, just benefit and cost.
Don’t wallow in unnecessary pain—
Continue the career that you’ve begun.
Your plan is executed; your game’s won.
15. Dibala to Chase: Murderer
Don’t talk of tyrants or a nation’s plight.
You chose to kill. Conviction led your hand
To steal a life—don’t think it was your right.
Don’t think you brought peace to a war-torn land.
Once challenged, though, you rose and dared to act:
You’re stronger than I’d guessed that you would be.
But now, what will occur after the fact,
When truth condemns instead of setting free?
We really aren’t so different, you and I,
That your choices will not reflect my own.
The marks of playing God won’t fade and die:
Some lines, once crossed, are etched as if in stone.
Don’t talk of guilt; don’t dwell on what you’ve done:
Your plan is executed; your game’s won.
Author: lit_luminary
Rating: PG for concepts.
Summary: Various perspectives on Chase's decision to kill Dibala and its aftermath.
Note: The sonnet redoublé is a highly structured form, consisting of fifteen sonnets. The first fourteen form a corona (i.e., the last line of the first is the first line of the second, and so on until the loop closes), and the fifteenth comprises, in order, the fourteen linking lines.
1. House to Chase: Cover
Your plan is executed; your game’s won—
So long as I conceal this single tell.
There is no need to punish what you’ve done.
I know that you have fashioned your own hell.
I’ll lie for you as you have lied for me,
And put this last discrepancy to rest.
Not words, but deeds, best repay loyalty,
And yours exceeds what I’d deserved or guessed.
Say everything proceeded by the book;
Point out the data that I’ll have supplied.
Give explanation, and they’ll overlook:
No one will question why the tyrant died.
Just one deception more will make this right.
Don’t talk of tyrants or a nation’s plight.
2. Father Prange to Chase: Absolution
Don’t talk of tyrants or a nation’s plight:
There’s no excuse to make for sins like yours.
To take another’s life was not your right;
Forgiveness doesn’t lie behind these doors.
Remember the commandment set in stone:
The words of God, the mortal act forbade.
Confess to earthly law if you’d atone—
Why do you look at me as though betrayed?
Pray to the Virgin Mother, to her Son,
To the Father for their mercy, undeserved.
Pray that you won’t be damned for what you’ve done;
Pray your immortal soul might be preserved.
Go. Give to justice what it must demand.
You chose to kill. Conviction led your hand.
3. Chase: Guilt
You chose to kill. Conviction led your hand.
So speak the pangs of conscience, and of guilt.
I’ve crossed a line. And now I understand
I have to thread the maze of lies I’ve built.
I’ve said that nothing’s wrong a dozen times;
I’ve left our bed and gone before she wakes.
It gets worse every day: the tension climbs,
And I know what will happen when it breaks.
I want things to continue as they were,
Want to deny the price already paid.
And I wish that I could confide in her,
That she would understand and stay, and aid—
Help drown the thoughts I can’t escape at night.
To steal a life—don’t think it was your right.
4. Foreman to Chase: Condemnation
To steal a life—don’t think it was your right.
No rationale absolves you from this crime.
There’s no excuse: the lines are black and white,
And you have gone beyond too far this time.
You played me for a fool. Our patient died.
Do you think numbers balance moral scales?
Cold-blooded murder’s never justified—
‘First, do no harm’ is not a rule that fails.
And yet the massacre is at a pause:
Involve the law, and slaughter would commence.
A dead man’s plans would swift become a cause,
So unjust logic stands in your defense.
You should have kept your oaths and stayed your hand.
Don’t think you brought peace to a war-torn land.
5. House to Chase: Advice (I)
Don’t think you brought peace to a war-torn land—
Still, close enough for your conscience’s sake.
I see the grays you do, and understand
The choices only ruthlessness can make.
You knew the numbers, the equation solved:
Kill just one man, preserve two million lives.
You chose to pay the moral costs involved:
Right can’t be done when innocence survives.
So don’t lament that the dictator bled—
I’ll tell you now: he isn’t worth remorse.
Don’t think you should be martyred in his stead.
You’ve proven you won’t break, so stay the course.
You knew the price that killing would extract.
Once challenged, though, you rose and dared to act.
6. House to Chase: Progress
Once challenged, though—you rose and dared to act.
Pushed hard enough, you pushed back and you thrived.
I forged in you the mettle that you’d lacked,
And the result was more than I’d contrived.
It never was a question of your skill,
But rather teaching you to stand, not bend.
You learned, and now I see you can and will
Translate the means to necessary end.
I fired you three years ago: a test.
You passed. If you return, I’ll let you stay.
I find I’m almost proud how you’ve progressed.
Don’t let your wife tell you to run away,
Or mold yourself to what she wants to see.
You’re stronger than I’d guessed that you would be.
7. House to Chase: Advice (II)
You’re stronger than I’d guessed that you would be.
This crucible will make you stronger still.
You’ve learned a truth that so few choose to see:
That sometimes, healing means you have to kill.
You still fear the damnation you were taught;
You don’t want to admit the ways you’ve grown.
I see the damage guilt and shame have wrought,
The cage you’ve built. The key is yours alone,
For moral lines aren’t etched in stone, but sand:
They vanish when they must; they shift and fade.
You changed and will redraw them. Understand
You are the sum of every choice you’ve made.
There was no question that you had to act.
But now, what will occur after the fact?
8. Chase to House: Loyalties
But now, what will occur after the fact?
Perhaps you know, the way you knew I lied.
By your aid, my deceptions stayed intact,
So harsh demands of law will go denied.
We’re tied by every lesson that you taught,
By all the understandings left unsaid.
I’ll cope, somehow, with what my actions wrought,
But can you help me find the way ahead?
I’m here because you’re all that I still trust,
The only one who wouldn’t see a sin.
The certainties I held before are dust.
Tell me how to rebuild, and I’ll begin.
What answers are there even you can see
When truth condemns instead of setting free?
9. House to Chase: Practicalities
When truth condemns instead of setting free
Then silence is the hardest lie to learn.
Don’t speak and make your life this choice’s fee:
Take no more steps from which you can’t return.
The vow you swore existed but to break;
The harm you did to one saved millions more.
What other path could a pragmatist take?
Far worse to save the one and damn the score.
So count the blood your actions didn’t shed.
Let logic give you comfort; let it stand.
The facts are these: an evil man is dead.
His people owe their lives to what you planned.
When rules are senseless, wise men question why—
We really aren’t so different, you and I.
10. Cameron to Chase: Schism
We really aren’t so different, you and I:
At least alike enough to share a life.
I thought that once. But now I find your lie
Has cut the bonds between us like a knife,
For murder is beyond me to forgive,
Beyond redress by words, by guilt or shame.
It isn’t yours to choose who gets to live—
But it’s not at your feet I place the blame.
House taught you how to play at being God,
That human lives are puzzles to be solved.
You’re walking the same path that he once trod.
I see your end and find myself resolved.
This certainty’s the weight of any stone:
That your choices will not reflect my own.
11. Chase to Cameron: Farewells
That your choices will not reflect my own—
I know. I only hoped that you would stay.
When you pack up and leave me here alone,
I’ll mourn the future that I cast away:
The dreams of children, of the home we’d build,
The joyous years the two of us had planned—
I knew the tyrant wasn’t all I’d killed.
I knew that you could never understand.
You see a line dividing white and black;
I see the grays, the subtleties of shade.
I made a choice, and wouldn’t take it back—
But love, I do regret you were betrayed.
I know you have to leave, and I know why:
The marks of playing God won’t fade and die.
12. Chase: Greater Good
The marks of playing God won’t fade and die.
When did this choice become one I could make?
The silence that I keep cannot deny
The truth of every oath I dared to break.
But how could ‘Do no harm’ mean shedding blood
By healing one who’d plotted genocide?
The tyrant’s death just might hold back the flood,
And if I’ve damned myself—at least I tried
To serve the greater good, the larger whole.
I once had faith, hoped that God could be just.
Now, do I still believe I have a soul?
There is so little left that I can trust.
Is murder ever something to condone?
Some lines, once crossed, are etched as if in stone.
13. House to Chase: Mentorship
Some lines, once crossed, are etched as if in stone:
Who knows unfading scars better than I?
When bridges burn, there’s no chance to atone,
So turn away. Don’t watch the embers die.
I’d tell you what I never once was told:
You did the needful thing, and you were right.
But words can’t heal, and you can’t be consoled;
Nothing I say will help you sleep at night.
The most that I can do is keep you here,
And watch, and wait, and meddle where I must.
I see your pain, your losses and your fear,
But also see that I still have your trust.
Stay; stand by what your actions have begun.
Don’t talk of guilt; don’t dwell on what you’ve done.
14. House to Chase: Advice (III)
Don’t talk of guilt; don’t dwell on what you’ve done.
The time for guilt is over, come and passed.
For what good can remorse do anyone?
Regrets don’t matter; only actions last.
Don’t grieve your marriage ended in divorce:
You never could have borne your truths denied
Or been the man she wanted, walked the course
She set for you. (I know how hard you tried.)
And you retained far more than what you lost,
So I would count the end result a gain.
It’s simple math, just benefit and cost.
Don’t wallow in unnecessary pain—
Continue the career that you’ve begun.
Your plan is executed; your game’s won.
15. Dibala to Chase: Murderer
Don’t talk of tyrants or a nation’s plight.
You chose to kill. Conviction led your hand
To steal a life—don’t think it was your right.
Don’t think you brought peace to a war-torn land.
Once challenged, though, you rose and dared to act:
You’re stronger than I’d guessed that you would be.
But now, what will occur after the fact,
When truth condemns instead of setting free?
We really aren’t so different, you and I,
That your choices will not reflect my own.
The marks of playing God won’t fade and die:
Some lines, once crossed, are etched as if in stone.
Don’t talk of guilt; don’t dwell on what you’ve done:
Your plan is executed; your game’s won.
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(Anonymous) 2010-11-21 02:15 pm (UTC)(link)BTW I'm still looking forward to more of the longer pieces in your story cycle.
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I'm continuing work on my longer stories; updates will turn up on this journal when available.
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Oh, forgot to add...the captures the cycle of opinions, feelings, etc. perfectly.
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To answer your question (which isn't stupid; I get it often): the average single sonnet takes me twenty to thirty minutes, but something like this obviously means a larger time investment--in this case, a few sonnets each day for most of a week. The key to the sonnet redoublé is to write the last sonnet first, and to do it while keeping in mind that you need to be able to interpret the lines of that sonnet from multiple angles.
Most of my poetry is fanfic poetry (whether based on canon, my own fic or other people's, which sometimes happens when the mood takes me), but I occasionally write sonnets on other topics. None of those are published/posted anywhere, however.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this--I was afraid most people would be scared off by the poetry and give it a pass.
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Writing it took about a week, at a rate of a few sonnets a night. (The key to the sonnet redoublé is to write the last sonnet first, then pencil in the first and last lines of all the others. That lets you fill in all the rest and maintain the overall flow of the narrative, because this is very much a form intended to tell a story.)
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Some things I learned in the process of writing two of them (the other is based on an AU House/His Dark Materials fusion): as I said, the final sonnet is the key. That one will sum up everything, and even better if it shifts the reader's perspective in a surprising way. (For example, "We aren't really so different, you and I" is a very different statement from Dibala's mouth than from House's.) You want that last sonnet to have lines that can be interpreted from multiple angles--things more than one character could say.
Once I'd finished that and written in the first and last lines of all the preceding sonnets, I wrote each proto-sonnet's speaker and addressee, and a titular keyword if one came to mind. That gave me a general idea of the storyline I was following and kept the narrative coherent.