Happy Spring!
March is usually a bust in Wisconsin, but we have something to look forward to: April, Poetry Month
Author Culture celebrates all forms of writing--let's talk sonnets today with my guest, Jane Osypowski.
Simplifying the Sonnet
My heart was broken, smashed by the first boy I
loved when I was a freshman in college. Knowing that nobody in the history of
mankind had experienced such devastation, I wrote and read volumes of poetry.
It was during this time of angst that I discovered Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Collected
Sonnets. Her lines: I cannot say what loves have come and
gone,/I only know that summer sang in me/ a little while, that in me sings no
more. (Sigh.) Her metered rhythm and beautiful, sad words were my solace. I
fell in love with this poetry form.
When Marilyn Taylor was Wisconsin’s state Poet
Laureate, she promoted form poetry, particularly sonnets, and showed how to
have fun writing them. Inspired, I wrote one that made it into the WisconsinPoets Calendar the following year. My goal today is to play Marilyn and show
you that sonnets are fun and easy to write!
First, sing a little song to get the rhythm of your
lines: ta DUM ta DUM ta DUM ta DUM ta DUM. This is called Iambic Pentameter.
When you are comfortable with the way it feels, play with lines that carry that
same beat. At this point, don’t worry about rhyme or stanzas or even tying the
lines together. Just let the rhythm and words flow.
There are a number of types of sonnets, determined
by the end of line rhyme pattern. Today, we will look at the English or
Shakespearean sonnet, where end of line pattern is:
a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d-e-f-e-f-g-g. The last two lines would bring the whole poem
together. Another way is to look at the first twelve lines as presenting a
conflict and resolving it in the last two.
Here is a "cheat sheet" examining the different types:
Here is a "cheat sheet" examining the different types:
JANE’S
SONNET CHEAT SHEET
Italian/Petrarchan English/Shakespearean
a a
b b
b a
a b
a conflict c
b d
b c
a d conflict
c e
d f
e e
c resolution f
d g resolution
e g Note: Shakespeare indented this
couplet
Spenserian Frost Variation
a a a
b a a
a b b
b c b
b b c
c d c
b c d
c d d
c conflict e e
d e e
c f f
d g f
e f g
e resolution g g
Notes
on Sonnets
Curtail
Sonnet
Shortened version = 10 lines
Caudate
Sonnet
Lengthened sonnet with extra couplet
at the end
Sonnet
Sequence
A string of sonnets containing
related or similar subject matter
Reverse
Sonnet
Reverse rhyme scheme -- i.e., maybe
open with rhyming couplet
Crown
of Sonnets
7 sonnets, each
one beginning with the last line of the preceding sonnet, with the first line
and the last line of the crown being identical.
Iambic
Pentameter
da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM
Note: Many modern sonnets abandon
rhythm.
Volta
begins just before the Resolution
(closing)
Hint: Work 10-syllable lines with rhyme scheme – try
to perfect meter later.
Below is my poem from the 2010 Poets Calendar. I
hope that you have fun and try to write your own sonnet. Please send it to Lisa,
lisalickel-at-yahoo.com, or me at jane62osypowski-at-yahoo.com and we’ll showcase a sample
of them on APRIL 20.
P.S. Don’t forget to celebrate National Poetry Month
in April.
Wise Guy
(a/k/a The Man in the Moon)
A copper full moon rises in the sky,
pours out a stream of light across the lake.
Tonight its boldness beckons, “Come outside,
absorb what’s left of summer now, and make
memories to carry you through the times
