Onomasticon Of the Void.Part 19

Xylophonus steps into the Fields of Figurative Fire, where the "likeness" of a thing possesses the "power" of the thing itself. Here, to speak of a "stony heart" is to feel the weight of granite in one's ribs.

Sonnet LVI: The Metaphoric Metamorphosis

He did not "act" like fire; he was the flame,A conflagration in a human skin;The tenor and the vehicle becameA fusion of the outer and the in.His thoughts were "tempests" lashing at the shore,His words were "arrows" tipped with liquid gold;He was the "lion" with a guttural roar,A "mountain" stoic, prehistoric, old.This identification was absolute,A totalizing trope of flesh and bone;The blossom had become the bitter fruit,The monarch had become the heavy throne.By merging with the symbol and the sign,He touched the threshold of the pure divine.

Sonnet LVII: The Simile of the Sands

He felt himself "as" vast "as" any sea,"Like" shifting dunes beneath a "circling" sun;But in this comparative decree,The "two-ness" of the world was never done.He was "like" water, yet he still felt dry,"As" "bold" "as" brass, but brittle in the heat;A "shadow" "like" a "smudge" upon the sky,With "iron" "like" a "shackle" on his feet.The Simile maintained a cruel distance,A "gap" "as" wide "as" any "gulf" of "grief";It offered him a shadowy existence,A "mockery" "as" "hollow" "as" a "leaf."He sought the "is" beneath the "as" and "like,"Before the lightning of the "truth" should strike.

Sonnet LVIII: The Allegory of the Arch

He came upon a bridge of "Human Life,"Where "Youth" and "Age" and "Avarice" did stand;A "River of Oblivion," dark and rife,Flowed "underneath" the "sorrow" of the land.The "Giant Despair" guarded the "Iron Gate,"While "Lady Wisdom" held a "Lamp of Law";Each entity was burdened by its weight,And "Pity" wept for "everything" she saw.It was an extended metaphoric dream,A didactic and puzzling parade;Where nothing "was" exactly what it "seemed,"Within the emblematic light and shade.He "slew" the "Dragon of Ignorance" with "Light,"To "conquer" the "Chimeras" of the "Night."

Sonnet LIX: The Personification of the Peak

The mountain "shrugged" its shoulders at the sky,The "angry" clouds "spat" "venom" on the ground;The "weary" sun "prepared" itself to "die,"As "mournful" echoes "wandered" all around.The "trees" "conspired" in "whispers" "hushed" and "low,"The "river" "hurried" with a "frightened" "pace";The "winter" "clutched" the "valley" in its "snow,"And "slapped" the "wizard" in his "frozen" "face."This Prosopopeia was a "sentient" "force,"Giving a "soul" to every "inanimate" "thing";It "steered" the "planets" in their "lonely" "course,"And "taught" the "silent" "stones" to "sob" and "sing."He "conversed" with the "spirit" of the "wind,"Until his "mortal" "senses" "tripped" and "sinned."

Sonnet LX: The Catachresis of the Core

"To sail a desert!" Xylophonus cried,"To hear the colors! To smell the silver sound!"His strained and shattered rhetoric defiedThe logic that the literal world had bound.This Catachresis—this "misuse" of "terms"—Was a violent and vibrant break with "sense";Where "logic" fed the "metaphoric" "worms,"And "truth" was "absent" in the "future tense."He "winged" his "feet" with "heavy" "lead" and "stone,"And "plucked" the "stars" like "daisies" from the "field";In this extravagant and "broken" "zone,"The mysteries of the Void were "finally" "yield."Six decads done! The "music" "starts" to "bleed,"As "Xylophonus" "sows" the "silent" "seed."

We have reached Sonnet 60! The wizard has survived the fires of figuration, but now enters the Void of Vacuity, where words lose all meaning and become Pure Sound (Asemic Writing).Then he sings a Song of Nonsense to cross, or force a New Meaning into the Silence.