Ricochet: Word Sonnets

Stephanie McKenzie is a visiting assistant professor of English at Sir
Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is
the editor and co-publisher of However Blow the Winds: An Anthology of
Poetry and Song from Newfoundland & Labrado

Ricochet consists of 43 word sonnets; a word sonnet is defined in the
preface as “a fourteen line poem, with one word set for each line.”
The book is divided into two sections: “Hail” (13 poems) and
“Ricochet” (30 poems).

Departure from Petrarchan and Shakespearean forms is blatant, but
innovative engagement with tradition is also present. In
“Feetfirst,” one can feel the impress of the relation between octave
and sestet as there is a “conflict” posed in the first portion of
the poem and a resolution in the latter half, though the break does not
take place at line eight but rather halfway through the poem (line 7):
“Where / did / I / see / these / feet / before? / On / his / deathbed
/ by / the / open / door.” The influence of the Shakespearean sonnet
is also felt as the rhyme scheme here is reminiscent of a rhyming
couplet. Mayne’s verse also brings to mind the haiku form (Ricochet
dedicates much space to depicting changing seasons) and epigrammatic
modernist poetry.

Mayne’s talent is particularly evident in poems that have a
metaphysical sensibility (e.g., “Stone,” “Ground,” and
“Guest”). Less successful are the poems that slip into playful
banter (e.g., “Toboggan,” “Latte,” and especially “Mother
Lode”). Ricochet left me appreciating the author’s abilities as a
craftsman. Yet, what do his poems help us see? What new ideas about life
do they offer? It’s not clear what holds this collection together.