LMM's Sonnet Acceptance Speech for "Best Original Score" Tony

[jesse_the_k]

from the NYTimes, here's Lin-Manuel accepting his 1st Tony for "Best Original Score" with a sonnet to his wife:


My wife’s the reason anything gets done
She nudges me towards promise by degrees
She is a perfect symphony of one
Our son is her most beautiful reprise.
We chase the melodies that seem to find us
Until they’re finished songs and start to play
When senseless acts of tragedy remind us
That nothing here is promised, not one day.
This show is proof that history remembers
We lived through times when hate and fear seemed stronger;
We rise and fall and light from dying embers, remembrances that hope and love last longer
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.
I sing Vanessa’s symphony, Eliza tells her story
Now fill the world with music, love and pride.


and then the other ten Tonys our show won:
Musical: “Hamilton”

Actor, musical: Leslie Odom Jr., “Hamilton”

Book, musical: “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda

Original Score: “Hamilton,” music and lyrics, Lin-Manuel Miranda

Featured actor, musical: Daveed Diggs, “Hamilton”

Featured actress, musical: Renée Elise Goldsberry, “Hamilton”

Costume design, musical: Paul Tazewell, “Hamilton”

Lighting design, musical: Howell Binkley, “Hamilton”

Direction, musical: Thomas Kail, “Hamilton”

Choreography: Andy Blankenbuehler, “Hamilton”

Orchestrations: Alex Lacamoire, “Hamilton”

Comments

[vass]

*reads that for a long time*

I think they put the line breaks in the wrong place. It looks to me like the extra feet should be in the concluding couplet, like he's fighting against the end of it, like love is bursting its container. So the last few lines should go:

This show is proof that history remembers
We lived through times when hate and fear seemed stronger;
We rise and fall and light from dying embers,
Remembrances that hope and love last longer
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.
I sing Vanessa’s symphony, Eliza tells her story, now fill the world with music, love and pride.

[rymenhild]

That's it. I've been trying to figure out where the extra feet were going, not to mention why I kept coming up with sixteen lines, and your solution is absolutely the right one.

[vass]

"And love is love is love is love is love" looks like it should be a whole line, but looking at the rhyme scheme, I suspect he came up with "And love cannot be killed or swept aside / Now fill the world with music, love, and pride" first (because rhyme scheme), and then needed to say more.

[selki]

I like that interpretation!

[vass]

Thank you.