This is a French Sonnet with 14 lines iambic hexameter of 12 syllables, with a rhyme scheme of aabb ccdd eeff gg. The sonnet is inspired by one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs, Crazy Mary. In the song, the family comes upon Crazy Mary after she’s already an adult. The story told here is how she got that way.
CRAZY MARY
Carefree girl, at homestead safe, with her family
When 10, a flu stole her mom, in great agony
When 12, wild boar took her dad to the hereafter
When 14, sis ran away, not seen thereafter
When 15, brother left for war, never to return
Alone, lived by chickens, snares, veggies – and she learned
Baker’s visits from the town, brought her coins and bread
Fates decreed, death passed her by, took her mind instead.
Fifty years going by, the town church keeps her fed
Dollies, faded, frayed now, sleep rowed within her bed
Songs she sings them nightly, rhymes so long remembered
Odd structured melodies, in them madness rendered
One stormy night lightning struck, Mary burnt to ash
A girl again, with family, sweet peace at last
Tao Talk 
How sad ☹️
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i’ve always felt the story of crazy mary needed to be told. yes, a very sad tale 😦
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Very well written, I must add. I really felt for her all the way through.
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A very well crafted poignant tale.
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you know how a poem writes itself? it’s like this one did. her story needed to be told
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Oh sure, I know that! Indeed.
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Please realise as I comment, I’m teaching myself too, never having written a sonnet before. You mention iambic pentameter – I think that will then be ten syllables or five feet of an unstressed then stressed syllable?
I remember the song and I think you’ve told her story very well!
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I’m the wrong person to ask about sonnets and iambic pentameter, as my understanding is limited at this point. I think it means exactly what you say, but if you find yourself at the end of the syllables and don’t have enough stressed syllables, add another syllable to stress rather than going short on them. Petru, I”m glad you feel I did her story justice. It’s a story that needed to be told.
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Nice line: “Fates decreed, death passed her by, took her mind instead.” And I liked the resolution at the end.
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Thank you Frank!
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Oh what a sad story… I can understand what made her crazy… just a small comment reflecting Petru’s . Penta in pentameter stands for five, so iambic pentameter has to have ten syllables with fiver stressed one.
With twelve syllables (and six stressed ones) the meter is iambic hexameter…. 🙂
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Thank you very much for the correction, Bjorn. Petru asked the wrong person… Yes, Pearl Jam started the tale mid-story. She deserved more than that.
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I just finished watching “Beautiful Boy” and then read this poem — what a strange coincidence. well done fiction, that could be real. Thanks.
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I haven’t seen it. Is “Crazy Mary” a track in it? Thank you, glad serendipity connected them 🙂
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No, the films is about drug addiction in a young boy and the torture it puts loved ones through.
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oh, ok. May I ask how my sonnet reminds you of the film? Sounds like it would a sad, agonizing story.
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“Beautiful Boy” is about a kid, unlike Mary, with a life that just gets worse and worse under the influence of meth. Kids (and Mary) start out beautiful children, then life goes down the drain. Indeed, agonizing stories
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So sorry to “witness” a tragic downward trajectory in any person, which can certainly have an emotional impact on the witness…
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So sad that there are many stories like this one. Since I love Pearl Jam, I especially enjoyed the story you told of Mary, and also the passion for telling it.
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Mish, so glad you connected with it as part of the “untold part” of the Pearl Jam song.
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A nice re-imagining of her story. I want to say that it’s not iambic as you claim it to be – but have learned that Australian and American English can have very different inflections and stress different syllables of a word, so maybe it is iambic (de-DA, de-DA) for you?
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Not sure but will be looking them over in the next week and will recheck. Yes the pronunciation/stress is quite different from country to country.
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An entire lifetime in 14 lines…but the ending completes the circle. Much like an old folk song. (K)
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Thank you very much for your feedback on the sonnet. It is appreciated.
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Fantastic, thank you for linking, Dave.
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