Penelope, I'm sorry no on ever responded to your modern sonnet!  I hope you'll come back and write more, totally ignoring Iambic Pentameter...

and then maybe take a few steps toward learning the feel of the da DUM da DUm in shorter verse until it's instilled in you.

I think we're gonna have to create SEVERAL Sonnet threads, so that the most well-known specific types can stand out in our thinking.  I hope to be able to do that before too long, but of course anyone can do it, and if the descriptions are clear and accurate, I'll add it to our 'Table of Contents' Link list.

In the meanwhile, here's one of my earliest twists of an English Sonnet [abab cdcd efef gg]

It grew out of my experiences in our great Mother-site, PK, back when I felt some rumblings of the like I'd never experienced, as a newbie to the drama of some poetry sites:


A Pair or Two Annoyed

Destruction finds its way to many a realm
where subjects get along quite wonderfully,
oblivious to stirrings at the helm.
It's not that they are blind; they just don't see.

There'll always be a pair or two annoyed
that servants find each others' company
more pleasant than obeisance . . . or they've toyed
with inner sanctum visits, just to see.

When dwellers in their pilot house become
intimidating to enough of those
who start to feel as though they're so much scum,
unrest will tear a rift no one can close. 

Somehow there's always pride there at the root.
I'm not sure just what happened in Beirut.

_{© Daniel J Ricketts 01 Oct 2002}

Since Norm is the form guy in CA these days, I thought maybe he'd spark some interest way down here in the FORMS fourm.

His current post in CA prompted me to write this:

Englitch Poetry bLight

Where did my English teachers get those names?
No wonder I had thought that I was dumb;
Iambic  and Pentameter?  Word games!
da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM

Why couldn’t they say “5 du DUMs”? and rhyme?
I understand abab; that’s clear.
and cdcd efef, fine.
and even gg… sure, but who’s shake spear?

a raving native writer whose long pen
he’d wave at all his critics, warning them
that they’d be his next victim?  No?  Who then?
Elizabethan?  Pome with diadem?

Well, Teach, I think my DUMdaDUMin’s right;
now could ya help me...  What?  I'm imp o' Light?

© M Lee Dickens’son 16 Feb 2004

Thanks Daniel, I'm glad you took the time to share with us your sonnet. I find the form very appropriate for humorous efforts, here is one of mine in that vein.

Temporary Insanity

Adventure lurks around life’s every bend; 
each path possesses secrets to unveil. 
For some, they offer joy, while others rend 
the heart in pieces, bringing much travail.

Of both of these, I have had quite a few, 
but none have pushed the buttons of my fear 
or caused the constant use of the word “phew”
as has the venture I am in this year.

You see, my son is learning how to drive—
his temporary license now secured; 
and with it I’ve obtained a case of hives 
(it’s cheaper by the case, I’ve been assured).

But in the end I know he’ll gain the skill 
he needs to drive me to the hospital

TM Douglas
Ticklersmusings 2003

(My Southern Ohio accent tends to pronounce hospital as hospitil)


Doug

Thanks Salem, You've been my guardian editor today. I think the record is straight now.   

TM

I could not allow this part of the train to be sonnetless any longer. I am sure there are passengers on this train more informed than I about this wonderful form, so whatever I share will give deference to opinions to the contrary. 

Sonnets are typically connected with Shakespeare and his love poems, i.e Shall I compare thee to a summer's night..., But sonnets can actually be about any topic, and I try to be diverse in my ideas that I put to this form.

The sonnet has two primary forms: the Italian form, which was the first as I understand it, and the English form, which is the most common. The latter is what I will refer to primarily from this point on. 

The form of the english sonnet is pretty straight forward, but it's mastery is quite contrary. There is actually some play in the rigidity of the from, so it's not a confining as some often think. I will explain this better shortly. 

Here are the basics:

All, both English and Italian, sonnets consist of fourteen (14) lines. As a general rule, the meter is pentameter, meaning there are five feet, with two syllables per foot for each line. (I will discuss the exceptions later)
Additionally, each line's rythym is iambic, meaning  the first syllable of each foot (a foot may be a whole word, two words, part of one word, or part of two seperate words) is always an unstressed or unaccented syllable followed by an accented or stressed syllable, followed by an unstressed etc. For example: 

The sonnet is a complicated rhyme.

When scanned, it looks like this. the SON-net IS a COM-pli-CA-ted RHYME

ten syllables, begining with an unaccented/stressed syllable, then alternating to end with a stressed. 

As mentioned above, there are some exceptions to the rule of meter. Occasionally, a poet will use a masculine ending to the last word of a line. This means the last syllable is an eleventh syllable, and is an unaccented one. For instance, this is the couplet for a piece I'm working on right now:

The choice is mine: To live or execution.
The strongest will survives this evolution.

However, the rule of thumb is still iambic pentameter. 

The sonnet is divided into three stanzas of four lines each, or a quatrain, and a fourth stanza of two lines, called a couplet. thus, it would look something like this.
1
2
3
4

5
6
7
8

9
10
11
12

13
14

In the Italian form, there are only two stanzas, eight lines in the first, and six in the second.

The rhyme scheme for the sonnet, of which there are two, is fairly simple. Typically it is abab cdcd,efef,gg, but it can also be abba cddc effe, gg. You can also write sonnets using blank verse, or no rhymes; but the meter stays the same. 


Well there are the basics. I'll leave you with an instructional sonnet that may be of help. Hope to see some stretching going on, especially for those free verse types.  



The sonnet is a complicated rhyme.
Its form restricts the use of many words.
To master it is really quite sublime;
It’s given us the finest poems heard.

The form is not so difficult to learn, 
the toughest part is the iambic stress, 
where each line is pentameter in turn, 
with alternating end rhymes nonetheless.

Well like I said, the hard part is the way 
the syllables are stressed as they are read.
So if you want the critics held at bay
Try reading it aloud, not in your head.

And when you’ve conquered this, I’m sure we’ll hear
A reincarnate William Shakespeare here.


TM