World Class Poetry Blog

A Hilbertian Sonnet: Is “Hindsight” Good Or Evil?
20 April 2008, the poet @ 9:34 am

Heresy, too, is religion. It may not come as blatantly as Eve’s argument against perfection, but it can still kick you between the legs - even in contemporary traditional poetry (is that an oxymoron?).

“Hindsight” by Bill Coyle is a great example of a traditional form - the sonnet - that is written with a twist. That is, the form has been changed. Of course, how many times in history has the sonnet been changed? From the Petrarchan Sonnet to the Shakespearean Sonnet and Spenserian Sonnet to Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Curtal, this may very well be the most popular form in history. Now, we have the Hilbertian Sonnet and Bill Coyle’s “Hindsight” is a fabulous one at that.

“Hindsight” was recently published in The New Criterion, so its ink is still wet. So wet, in fact, that I’m not even going to reprint it. You can read it in its first publication. Enjoy!

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