{"id":576,"date":"2013-05-12T11:52:45","date_gmt":"2013-05-12T15:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rafekinsey.com\/blog\/?p=576"},"modified":"2014-01-31T23:48:10","modified_gmt":"2014-02-01T04:48:10","slug":"a-sonnet-for-morgenbesser-dear-astrophil-love-stella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rafekinsey.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/12\/a-sonnet-for-morgenbesser-dear-astrophil-love-stella\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sonnet for Morgenbesser: Dear Astrophil, Love Stella"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two summers ago, I sat in on a wonderful introductory poetry course taught by John Whittier-Ferguson<\/a>. Among the poems we read was Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnet Astrophil and Stella 63<\/em> (“O Grammar rules\u2026”).<\/p>\n

In this sonnet sequence,1<\/a><\/sup> Astrophil is less than successfully wooing Stella. By this 63rd sonnet he resorts to linguistic trickery: You have said “No, no,” to me, but two negatives are a positive, so you’re saying “Yes”! In his words:<\/p>\n

\n O Grammar rules, O now your virtues show;
\n So children still read you with awful eyes,
\n As my young Dove may in your precepts wise
\n Her grant to me, by her own virtue know.
\n For late with heart most high, with eyes most low,
\n I crav\u2019d the thing which ever she denies:
\n She lightning Love, displaying Venus\u2019 skies,
\n Least once should not be heard, twice said, No, No.
\n Sing then my Muse, now Io P\u00e6an sing,
\n Heav\u2019ns envy not at my high triumphing:
\n But Grammar\u2019s force with sweet success confirm,
\n For Grammar says (O this dear Stella weigh,)
\n For Grammar says (to Grammar who says nay)
\n That in one speech two Negatives affirm.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reading this, I instantly knew what Stella’s response should be. So, one lovely summer day, rather than doing my math, I took up my poetry pen for the first time since elementary school haikus, and wrote this:<\/p>\n

\n Dear Astrophil, Love Stella<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, yes!\u201d I say to you—with caveat.
\n I warn: bewitching can our language be;
\n This game might lead to nought but misery
\n For you who tried to win me o\u2019er by thought.
\n Even for those who think on \u2018is\u2019 and \u2018ought,\u2019
\n \u2019Tis not so easy as it seems to be.
\n A famous don once gave a talk, you see,
\n Where by his aper\u00e7u he did get caught.
\n \u201cThat from two nos we get a positive,
\n Of this there\u2019s evidence corroborative.\u201d
\n Thus did our wise and learned chair declare.
\n \u201cAnd yet you must agree that it is so,
\n That from two yays we never get a no.\u201d
\n \u2014Whence from the back the quick retort: \u201cYeah, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

–Rafe Kinsey, July 2011\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My Stella is recounting the famous quip of the late Columbia philosopher Sidney Morgenbesser, who offered this remark after the British philosopher of language J.L. Austin<\/a> claimed that double positives never make a negative.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Morgenbesser was a wonderful character, renowned for his wit. Let me offer a few of my favorite quotes:<\/p>\n