Gluttony. Excessive eating and drinking. This fifth sonnet of my seven deadly sins collection, marks 5/7 of the way through my project to write a sonnet every week for a year.
This sonnet is a celebration of gluttony. I have used synaesthesia (the rhetorical technique of describing one sense in terms of another) to construct a celebration of consumption.
This jovial cross-sensory allusion is enhanced by puns: “Trumpet mushrooms”, “rich … cream horn; “lemon[-]cello”, “champagne flutes”. Many of my sonnets to date have been somewhat earnest; it was fun to be lighthearted for a change.
The capping couplet uses the playful sound of a “swanee whistle” (a noise sometimes used to lampoon obesity) to euphemistically dismiss criticisms of a contented glutton.
Gluttony I eat a symphony of sour and sweet: Discordant snacks – musicians tuning up, Conductor’s baton sets my heart’s quick beat, My stomach mumbles as the room fills up. The drawl of violins – apéritif The zingling bell tree is a piquant soup Trumpet mushrooms herald carpaccio beef And snare drum scallops send me cock-a-hoop. The strings combined – gravy by angels kissed Next rasping rich bass tones of the cream horn Cleansed by the limoncello soloist Then cheerful champagne flutes prattling till morn. I savour every note, both sharp and flat; Give not a swanee whistle that I’m fat.