Peasant Wedding Banquet

** Image ID #1569283 Unavailable **


Above the country folk in banquet hall,
Divinely drifts the fragrance of the feast
It spreads and rises, sweet like dough of yeast
Warm apple wedding pastry pleases all

With satin fabric swathing simple wall
The merry couple, kin, and honored priest
Austere, the scene when riches are the least,
But lively hearts at party never pall

From strings and bow, a buoyant tune now bops
Around the table, passing cups to fill
The potent wine's new gurgling jug top pops
Each glass is raised to toast occasion’s thrill
Like sparrow birds at dawn, no chatter stops
Though each a single drink, demands the bill

This poem is an ekphrastic sonnet (particularly, an Italian sonnet), a reflection on the above painting, "Peasant Wedding Banquet" by Pieter Bruegel.

The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet is divided usually between eight lines called an octave ad using two rhymes arranged abbaabba, and six lines called the sestet, using an arrangement of either two or three rhymes: cdcdcd or cdecde. It is traditionally written in strict iambic pentameter. Usually in the Italian sonnets, corresponding to the division of the octave and the sestet there is a division of thought.

Sometimes the first part posed a question and the sestet answered, or the octave presented an idea and the sestet an example.