Sonnet for Dennis Ritchie

diiq 14 years ago |

I clicked the link with my spine pre-cringed, ready for cheesy hacker poetry. Instead I found a lovingly crafted epitaph in stylish, uninterrupted verse. I immediately looked to see the other poetry. I was shocked that there were only two others posted --- I refuse to believe that someone who wrote this and The Little Bank of San Pietro dei Fiumi (also beautiful) has only written three poems. Post more, Mister Jorgensen!

tomheon 14 years ago | |

So glad you enjoyed this, and "The Little Bank"! I just started the process of moving things out of the drawer and onto the site. There's a big backlog but I'm posting every week or two to avoid a "verse bomb" effect. However there's an RSS feed if you're interested.

Thanks again for the response. It's great to see that there are other hackers out there interested in poetry.

diiq 14 years ago | | |

Wonderful! Consider me subscribed.

I also just bought your book; I'm looking forward to it.

tomheon 14 years ago | | |

Great, would love to hear what you think...you can find my contact info on my site.

lsb 14 years ago | | |

Both those poems make me excited at the quality of your Kindle book. Can't wait to read it!

tomheon 14 years ago | | |

Thanks! From your bio it looks like you're a classicist / hacker--which is pretty much the book's ideal audience.

xianshou 14 years ago |

I was prepared to laugh, but that's actually...a little touching. Now who said hackers have no creative spirit!

michaelty 14 years ago |

"Exists, what can it be but information?

Your ghost performs the world’s computation."

Beautiful!

p4bl0 14 years ago |

TIL that an english sonnet is not at all the same thing as a french one (I was confused at first, because in french a sonnet is a very strict form of poetry, which is not respected at all here). So thanks for that, and beautiful text, by the way :-).

diiq 14 years ago | |

Both forms are pretty strict, but yeah, the French gets a little less leeway. He is respecting the English rules, while using some chic slant rhymes. I know English is abab cdcd efef gg --- am I right in remembering French as abba abba cc dccd?

p4bl0 14 years ago | | |

French sonnets must recpect the following two rules:

- rhymes are abba abba ccd eed

- lines must be Alexandrine

This last rules implies a lot of things :

- each lines must be exactly 12 syllabes

- the caesura (either between the sixth and seventh syllabes (for two hemistiches lines), or between the forth and fifth and between the eighth and nineth (for three parts lines)) must respect a lot of rules which makes it pleasant to read (for instance, the syllabe just before it cannot be feminine (roughly, it means it should not end with a 'e', but it's a lot more complex than that))

- rhyme genre must alternate (either a and d and feminine and b, c and e are masculine or the reverse)

- maybe some other nasty things I don't recall right now.

diiq 14 years ago | | |

Thanks for setting me straight! Where did you learn these rules? I went hunting and couldn't find much --- not even agreement on the rhymes for the quatrain (which you imply isn't a quatrain at all?).

p4bl0 14 years ago | | |

The end can be in 'cc deed' but it is quite uncommon. Usually, the first two strophes (does that word exists in english?) are quatrains and the two other are tercets.

I learned some of that in middleschol or highschool (in France) and for a few details by reading the french Wikipedia. But more importantly I have a friend who is very knowledgeable on this kind of subjects (a3_nm here on HN), which is really cool.

jszmajda 14 years ago |

Very touching! Thanks for sharing.

brudgers 14 years ago |

Spoken like a hacker, not a hack.

danso 14 years ago |

I wasn't sure if "Steve Jacks" was an admirer or some clueless middle manager at a newspaper meeting not wanting to talk about "C" because everyone is running "PCs" these days.

But here's his original letter: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-18/news/chi-11101...

tomheon 14 years ago | |

Thanks for bringing this up / posting the link.

Someone brought up a similar point in comments on the poem itself--I added a direct link in the attribution.