{"id":3621,"date":"2018-07-07T09:31:04","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T13:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/HatchetOnline\/?p=3621"},"modified":"2018-07-07T09:31:04","modified_gmt":"2018-07-07T13:31:04","slug":"sonnets-to-the-portuguese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/sonnets-to-the-portuguese\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonnets to the Portuguese"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mary Elizabeth Naugle<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

First published in December\/January, 2005, Volume 2, Issue 6, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The Lost Skeleton of Corte Real<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

A Borden housewife once dug silt for polish,
\n<\/span><\/i>But broke off when her spade broke on a relic in
\n<\/i>The sands of time that hone steel or demolish.
\n<\/i>She hoped for gold but got a crumbling skeleton
\n<\/i>In wrappings of rough cloth and rougher bark–
\n<\/i>A babe in armour cradled on a gurney.
\n<\/i>Brass arrows were aquiver to embark.
\n<\/i>Upon the ocean\u2019s breast for life\u2019s last journey.
\n<\/span><\/i>But rather than cast off in that brave ark
\n<\/i>The Great Fire took him up in smoke: a spark.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

No brave\u2019s departure could be more ethereal
\n<\/i>than the last blazing sendoff of Miguel CorteReal\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The Original Plymouth Rock<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Pilgrims did not step or ever write on
\n<\/i>That rock whose name would grace a goodly hen.
\n<\/i>But intrepid Corte Real did both to Dighton
\n<\/i>(A bigger rock) and did it way back when.
\n<\/i>Those lines, those cryptic petroglyphs, were writ
\n<\/i>Ere Shakespeare\u2019s works (or Shakespeare) had emerged.
\n<\/span><\/i>And though these lines might have required less wit,
\n<\/span><\/i>They prove when brave new world with old converged.
\n<\/span><\/i>For with the coat of arms is carved a date
\n<\/i>That shows the pilgrims clocked in rather late. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

We cannot know if Miguel was a sinner,
\n<\/i>But he devour\u2019d the first Thanksgiving dinner.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>\u00a0 <\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Original Plymouth Rock<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Pilgrims did not step or ever write on
\n<\/i>That rock whose name would grace a goodly hen.
\n<\/i>But intrepid Corte Real did both to Dighton
\n<\/i>(A bigger rock) and did it way back when.
\n<\/i>Those lines, those cryptic petroglyphs, were writ
\n<\/i>Ere Shakespeare\u2019s works (or Shakespeare) had emerged.
\n<\/span><\/i>And though these lines might have required less wit,
\n<\/span><\/i>They prove when brave new world with old converged.
\n<\/span><\/i>For with the coat of arms is carved a date
\n<\/i>That shows the pilgrims clocked in rather late. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

We cannot know if Miguel was a sinner,
\n<\/i>But he devour\u2019d the first Thanksgiving dinner.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>\u00a0 <\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poetry to the Portuguese by Mary Elizabeth Naugle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":2897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}