ABBA

Average white band? No, super troupers

By self-decree in elevator boots,

Bright beam their bop in satin sequin suits –

Absolutely fabulous pre-youtubers.

Agnetha, not too charming, not too cute.

Björn, born to disco Swedish folk tunes.

Benny, bending notes, popping instant fortunes.

Anni-Frid, unimpeded toots the flute.

Cocooned in safe suburban seventies

Daydream soundtracks mime the movements,

Everybody’s guilty secret make-ups.

Countdown cuties, dagsville beauties,

Diamante diadems of self-improvement

Express their marriage (too soon) breakups.

ABBA ABBA CDE CDE, the rhyme scheme of many Italian sonnets, has challenged me for a while to write a tribute to the very famous Swedes. You can see the rhyme scheme down the left side with the dutiful rhymes on the right. ABBA itself, as all self-respecting dags know, is an acronym of the initials of the band members and is meant to be written in all capitals, though good luck with that. I have attached Erik Didriksen's sonnet version of one of the world's best known pop songs. Didriksen has written an entire book called 'Pop Sonnets' (Fourth Estate, 2015) that does mock-Shakespeare on very many lyrics.