My First-Ever Sonnet and How I Stumbled upon Sonneteering
by Jose Rizal M. Reyes / Only Herald to the Gaudy Spring / February 7, 2016
I posted this sonnet seven years ago, exactly to this day. It is my first-ever sonnet and it is dedicated to my noble teacher — my eternal guru — someone known in esoteric circles as Saint Germain, a mysterious and controversial personality who once dazzled the European royal courts as the Wonderman of Europe.
He fulfilled one of my three lifelong quests — namely, the search for the ideal leader. My two other quests — the search for the ideal girl and the search for the ideal country — are a bit complicated to discuss so I won’t do so here.
Saint Germain was incarnated as the prophet Samuel who anointed the young shepherd boy David as future king of Israel; as Joseph, the protector of Mother and Child during the Galilean ministry of Jesus; as Merlin, chief adviser of King Arthur and co-founder of the fellowship of the Round Table; as Christopher Columbus whose explorations connected the planet; and as the Franciscan friar and philosopher Roger Bacon, among others.
His last incarnation prior to his ascension was as Sir Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England and rumored to be the older of the two secret sons of Queen Elizabeth I. Mark Twain and many others believe that Bacon is the true author of the Shakespearian plays and sonnets.
Sir Francis Bacon is said to have also used other “living masks” for his writings. His other writings reportedly include the Spanish novel “El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha” (“The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha”) — or “Don Quixote” for short. “The Ingenious Gentleman” … hmm, it sounds like he is giving a strong hint by that very title, right?
Let’s do here a little triangulation to ferret out the truth about his identity.
Scholars and students of the Shakespearian sonnets have been wondering for centuries who is Mr. W. H., who is said to be the true author of the Shakespearian sonnets. Several theories have been propounded and several candidates have been presented. As the person to whom the Shakespearian sonnets was primarily addressed, let me give a definitive answer: Mr. W. H. means Mister Who Hides — as in Don Quixote de la Mancha, meaning, Mister Who Hides from the (English) Chanel.
How and why was he hiding? Actually, he was not hiding physically. What he was hiding when he wrote many of his writings … was his identity. He penned a lot using his own name Francis Bacon, and he earned enduring fame for that. But that is just the tip of the ice berg because much of his writings was done using the names of his contemporaries. He had to hide his identity for security reason.
The idea of using a “living mask” can be easily understood in our time, especially by Facebook netizens. How? Have you come across those Facebook accounts that carry the names of famous people or celebrities? Oftentimes, they are just fake profiles, right? So imagine a person who, fearing for his life, opened several Facebook accounts under the name of real people, be famous or not. What Sir Francis Bacon did was similar to that — he wrote under different names of real people.
A large percentage of mankind enjoy today much freedom of thought, speech, locomotion and action. Not so in ancient times. It was hard before to travel, to communicate and to act. One word that displeased the rulers could mean death by hanging, decapitation, burning at the stake or some other horrifying means. That is why it was more compelling in those days to use a pen name because revealing one’s identity could easily mean life or death — more so if one was directly or personally warned by a monarch not to write something or not to reveal one’s true identity.
I have been called a sonnet grandmaster, a title first applied to me in a Myspace poetry group by Brian Seawell during my Myspace days. I have written 2000 sonnets on various subjects. In addition, I have finished writing more than 40 Replies to the 154 Shakesperian sonnets.
Having said that, let me confide here that I got into sonnet writing because of my search for, and research about, my teacher. My going into sonnet writing was an unintended result of my lifelong three-fold quest — particularly with regards to the quest for the ideal leader. Eventually, I found Saint Germain in this lifetime. I learned that his final incarnation was as Sir Francis Bacon. I also learned that Sir Francis Bacon hid behind the living mask of William Shakespeare, that he was in fact the author of the Shakesperian writings.
And when I read the Shakespearian sonnets, I knew in my heart and soul that this body of work was primarily addressed to me. I am the Fair Youth of his sonnets. For I am a young soul … but well taught and trained by God, even as I have also to undergo the trials and tribulations exquisitely revealed in the Shakespearian sonnets and the Book of Isaiah.
First FB posting: http://bit.ly/2jXJVO6
Another FB posting: http://bit.ly/2jXknMj
Sonnet 1: The Search for the Ideal Leader: http://bit.ly/2jXn94l
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P. S.
Actually, my sonnet writing activity started when a fellow member of a Friendster poetry group — someone named Aki Barrameda (or Balmaceda?) — introduced the sonnet form to us shortly before August 7, 2007. Nevertheless, my interest in the sonnet form was heightened by the information I got much earlier that the Shakeperian plays and poems were written by Sir Francis Bacon, whom I regard as my guru. Hence, my special interest on sonneteering, particularly on the 154 Shakesperian sonnets.
— JRMR / February 7, 2017
