Dan Schneider's trisonnet "Triceratops Herd Running" begins with an epigraph that dedicates the poem to the late rock-star Chris Cornell, who died in 2017. The dedication is critical to bear in mind because, while the literal contents of the poem are far removed from the modern world, the thematic implications of Schneider's poetry are easy to connect to Cornell's sudden death.
The poem is a trisonnet, or three individual sonnets united by a singular theme or purpose. The three sonnets describe a herd of Triceratops thundering across the plain in what is now Wyoming. The herd is mindless and driven by instinct. A pack of "juvenile T. Rexes" pursue the hoard and see the Triceratops as "just meat on horns." Both creatures are described as
victims of this driving primitive dance,collective soulless minion of its genes
In this opening sonnet, the speaker of the poem presents an ordinary natural moment from millions of years in the past. There is no intelligence in the life raging across prehistoric America; only the drive to survive from both the powerful Triceratops and the predators hunting them.
The second sonnet records the death of one of the young T. Rexes, killed by the "living cyclone" of Triceratops. Another juvenile T. Rex pauses and quits the hunt when it smells "its others' end in every breath." After retreating a safe distance, it appears that the T. Rex experiences its "first fear," perhaps a realization of its weaknesses and vulnerability.
The third sonnet records the silence and destruction left by the Triceratops as the relentless hoard rumbles into the distance. As the young T. Rex stands over the body of its companion, the speaker of the poem asks a rhetorical question:
Does the cosmos take namesor make note of the slaughter?
The obvious answer to this query is, no. The universe does not care about the death of a young predator in prehistoric Wyoming. The cosmos does not maintain a scorecard for the living and dead. Like the mindless Triceratops hoard, the universe exists with no overarching purpose.
As the juvenile T. Rex is called back to the pack by an adult "bull," the speaker ends with a blunt fact:
Soon, they all will be dead.
The final sonnet explores the universality of death. For humans and dinosaurs alike, death is inevitable. In this manner, Schneider's trisonnet serves as an elegy for Chris Cornell. While Cornell left the world too soon, Schneider reminds his audience through this poem that the end will be the same for all of us. I hope this helps!
"Triceratops Herd Running" is subtitled "a trisonnet for Chris Cornell." Chris Cornell was the lead vocalist of the rock band, Soundgarden. He died in 2017.
The first sonnet describes the eponymous triceratops running across "the steppes" that will, one day in the far future, be the location of Wyoming. In the second half of the sonnet, there seems to be a "dino-swarm" stampeding across the steppes in what the poet calls a "driving primitive dance."
The second sonnet seems to anticipate the extinction of the dinosaurs with the impending impact of an asteroid. The asteroid is described as a "living cyclone (which) rages" as it "sunders the sod." The impending impact of the asteroid stops a "T. Rex" in its tracks, as it "smells its others' end." In other words, it smells in the air the impending death of all other dinosaurs.
In the third and final sonnet, there is described the aftermath of the asteroid's impact. There is "a poverty of bones" and the skies are "flesh-riven." The cosmos, meanwhile, is implied to be indifferent to all the "slaughter" and doesn't "take names / or make note." This third sonnet ends with the idea that all life is pitted against itself, in a relentless drive for supremacy, or "oneness." Every species will fight for supremacy, until it is the only one that remains. And after that, "all will be dead."
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