Originally published here.
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — July 27, 2019 — Sonnet 5, a marriage poem from MacKenzie’s Sonnets for Christ the King, has inspired award-winning producer, composer, and vocalist D.G. Hall to put forth a timeless song in the contemporary pop genre. With its positive vibe, soaring vocal lines, and beautifully textured orchestration, Hall’s setting combines classic style with the best of today’s popular sound.
The remarkable collaboration of a traditional lyric poet with a genius producer has resulted in the creation of MacKenzie & Hall, a partnership operating under the PoemSongs.com label committed to producing beautiful songs based on MacKenzie poems. MacKenzie is a member of the prestigious Society of Classical Poets and has appeared in Trinacria (New York), America’s top review of formal verse.
The relationship is groundbreaking in that so-called “lyrics,” created by committees and serving only to set up a chorus, have become shopworn and conventional in today’s industry. Only exquisite, traditionally-crafted poems, composed by authentic men of letters with humanistic backgrounds, are able to convey a classic sense of timelessness. MacKenzie & Hall have thus confirmed a truth of songwriting first demonstrated by David Gilmour’s setting of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18: The 400-year old English sonnet continues to stand the test of time.
For Elizabeth
If charm were a country, then you would be
Its capital of many domes and spires
Gilded and gleaming off a crystal sea,
And graced with every art that love inspires.
If beauty a nation, then you, its queen,
Would wield the scepter of love’s dazzling power
Beguiling all thy subjects with serene
And regal allure from a silver tower.
Alas, the fairest flow’rs remain unknown
Behind the garden walls of married life;
And thou, the loveliest, shouldst not bemoan
The humble title of a poet’s wife:
To capitals yet made these lines proclaim
Eternal love, and gild thy beauty’s fame.
©Joseph Charles MacKenzie