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karen
Member
Username: trig

Post Number: 51
Registered: 09-2005
Posted on Saturday, September 24, 2005 - 4:24 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I have to at least attempt a form piece, either a sonnet, sestina or villanelle for a poetry folio.

Ive decided on a sonnet. Ive read a number of them, looked up 'da rules' and tried to get a general feel for them. I have read some modern sonnets :-) lovely.

what I know:

usually about love
can really let go with the language
14 lines usually
three diff types
italian
shakespearian
and i forget the other one
different rhyming schemes as per type of sonnet

now can i do the following and still be considered a sonnet

vary the syllable count per line?
can i write about love/hate for an atttribute ie candour
can i use repetition
what little things make a poem look like a sonnet but technically its not a sonnet

Denis M. Garrison
Advanced Member
Username: denismgarrison

Post Number: 653
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Saturday, September 24, 2005 - 10:12 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Karen,

Must be 14 lines to be a sonnet. Lines can be iambic pentameter, but may be varied. Sonnets now can be on any subject. A great deal of variation is now acceptable, but if the poem is not 14 lines, it is not a sonnet.

Keeping to one of the traditional structures will bring an experimental sonnet closer to form. So, try for an octet followed by a sestet, or three quatrains followed by a couplet.

Here is a link to a page at my site, a PDF file, re: sonnet construction. Good luck.

http://www.dmgar.com/poetry/forms/sonnetstructuralconsiderations.pdf

bw,
Denis
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Joshua Johnston
New member
Username: silverfire

Post Number: 21
Registered: 06-2005
Posted on Sunday, September 25, 2005 - 11:38 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I have Lewis Turco's New Book of Forms, and in his definition of a sonnet, he mentions that it also usually has a turn near the end. A shifting of meaning or nuance. For example, the poem may be talking about love lost, then the poet may express a realization of the freedom gained in the last quatrain and couplet.

The turn is probably my favorite aspect of sonnets. Good luck with your efforts.
karen
Member
Username: trig

Post Number: 57
Registered: 09-2005
Posted on Sunday, September 25, 2005 - 9:03 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

thankyou for your replies :-)

Ive finished a draft and I love my idea, I love the melodrama in it, I love the use of the same metaphor throughout the sonnet

I just feel very uncomfortable about the poem itself, the words, yet that was what I was trying to convey, to make the reader squirm...

also I dont like how it flows but I dont want to change the jolting bits

i suppose its another workshop piece...