American Sonnet for the New Year by Terrance Hayes

American Sonnet for the New Year

by Terrance Hayes

Things got terribly ugly incredibly quickly 

Things got ugly embarrassingly quickly 

actually Things got ugly unbelievably quickly 

honestly Things got ugly seemingly infrequently 

initially Things got ugly ironically usually 

awfully carefully Things got ugly unsuccessfully 

occasionally Things got ugly mostly painstakingly 

quietly seemingly Things got ugly beautifully 

infrequently Things got ugly sadly especially 

frequently unfortunately Things got ugly

increasingly obviously Things got ugly suddenly

embarrassingly forcefully Things got really ugly 

regularly truly quickly Things got really incredibly 

ugly Things will get less ugly inevitably hopefully 

This wonderful poem was originally published on the Academy of American Poets website in 2019! I know--it seems more approapriate for it to have been written last week. Maybe another of Terrance Hayes' talents is his ability to see the future!

There is, as with every poem I post on my blog, so much to love here.

Hayes is known for his American sonnets (among other things; see Golden Shovel poems). There is no set definition for these beyond 14 lines, and some would even argue about that. Generally, there is no rhyme scheme, no fixed meter, and the volta (the change or turn) can appear anywhere.

This poem has 14 lines and it goes beyond rhyme--every line ends with the same "ly" ending. The volta does not appear until the last line. The lines vary in syllabics and meter, although the lines have an average of 12 syllables.

Repetition is obviously key here. Hayes takes the warning about avoiding adverbs in poetry and goes overboard with them, taking that great advice and playing with it to great effect. Many of the adverbs are repeated, as is the word "things" (another word to avoid in poetry), which begins every sentence.

He also plays with line breaks here. After the second line, sentences drop down to end in the next line. There is no punctuation, but the word "Things" is capitalized throughout.

The fun sounds and word play cannot hide the gravity of the poem's point--things got bad. However, Hayes provides some hope at the end ("Things will get less ugly inevitably hopefully") as if, like many of us, he looks back and sees that things generally do get right after being horrible. But, of course, not always. "Hopefully," the last word in the poem, is doing a lot here. Of course better times are what we hope for, but they are not a given.

Poems do not have to have answers. They teach the way great teachers do--by showing us how to think, by asking questions, by presenting examples that let us draw our own conclusions, by providing facts and anecdotes that enlighten, by introducing us to life's conundrums and issues, and by poking us a bit with some truth telling. This poem, which provides no "do this and everything will be okay" lesson may not be the way you want to start your new year, but maybe it is the way we all need to start it.