

Sonnet for Dennis Ritchie - tomheon
http://www.edmundjorgensen.com/2011/11/09/sonnet-for-dennis-ritchie.html

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diiq
I clicked the link with my spine pre-cringed, ready for cheesy hacker poetry.
Instead I found a lovingly crafted epitaph in stylish, uninterrupted verse. I
immediately looked to see the other poetry. I was shocked that there were only
two others posted --- I refuse to believe that someone who wrote this and _The
Little Bank of San Pietro dei Fiumi_ (also beautiful) has only written three
poems. Post more, Mister Jorgensen!

~~~
tomheon
So glad you enjoyed this, and "The Little Bank"! I just started the process of
moving things out of the drawer and onto the site. There's a big backlog but
I'm posting every week or two to avoid a "verse bomb" effect. However there's
an RSS feed if you're interested.

Thanks again for the response. It's great to see that there are other hackers
out there interested in poetry.

~~~
diiq
Wonderful! Consider me subscribed.

I also just bought your book; I'm looking forward to it.

~~~
tomheon
Great, would love to hear what you think...you can find my contact info on my
site.

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xianshou
I was prepared to laugh, but that's actually...a little touching. Now who said
hackers have no creative spirit!

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michaelty
"Exists, what can it be but information?

Your ghost performs the world’s computation."

Beautiful!

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p4bl0
TIL that an english sonnet is not at all the same thing as a french one (I was
confused at first, because in french a sonnet is a _very_ strict form of
poetry, which is not respected at all here). So thanks for that, and beautiful
text, by the way :-).

~~~
diiq
Both forms are pretty strict, but yeah, the French gets a little less leeway.
He _is_ respecting the English rules, while using some chic slant rhymes. I
know English is abab cdcd efef gg --- am I right in remembering French as abba
abba cc dccd?

~~~
p4bl0
French sonnets must recpect the following two rules:

\- rhymes are abba abba ccd eed

\- lines must be Alexandrine

This last rules implies a lot of things :

\- each lines must be exactly 12 syllabes

\- the caesura (either between the sixth and seventh syllabes (for two
hemistiches lines), or between the forth and fifth and between the eighth and
nineth (for three parts lines)) must respect a lot of rules which makes it
pleasant to read (for instance, the syllabe just before it cannot be feminine
(roughly, it means it should not end with a 'e', but it's a lot more complex
than that))

\- rhyme genre must alternate (either a and d and feminine and b, c and e are
masculine or the reverse)

\- maybe some other nasty things I don't recall right now.

~~~
diiq
Thanks for setting me straight! Where did you learn these rules? I went
hunting and couldn't find much --- not even agreement on the rhymes for the
quatrain (which you imply isn't a quatrain at all?).

~~~
p4bl0
The end can be in 'cc deed' but it is quite uncommon. Usually, the first two
strophes (does that word exists in english?) are quatrains and the two other
are tercets.

I learned some of that in middleschol or highschool (in France) and for a few
details by reading the french Wikipedia. But more importantly I have a friend
who is very knowledgeable on this kind of subjects (a3_nm here on HN), which
is really cool.

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jszmajda
Very touching! Thanks for sharing.

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brudgers
Spoken like a hacker, not a hack.

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danso
I wasn't sure if "Steve Jacks" was an admirer or some clueless middle manager
at a newspaper meeting not wanting to talk about "C" because everyone is
running "PCs" these days.

But here's his original letter:
[http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-18/news/chi-11101...](http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-18/news/chi-111018jacks_briefs_1_vending-
machine-unix-traffic-light)

~~~
tomheon
Thanks for bringing this up / posting the link.

Someone brought up a similar point in comments on the poem itself--I added a
direct link in the attribution.

