It’s been a minute since I last did a sonnet. So, Petrarchan or Shakespearean? *flips coin* Shakespearean it is!
For those who don’t remember which is which from high school English, Shakespeare did sonnets in three four-line verses of ABAB CDCD EFEF with a final GG couplet. Petrarchan/Italian sonnets were ABBA ABBA CDC DCD (or CDE CDE). Then I looked on Wikipedia and found out there are actually a lot more varieties; guess that’s an opportunity for another time.
You know the hardest part of these poems? Coming up with a topic. I feel like the topic of love is ground heavily trod upon already and yet a lot of other topics seem trite (says the woman who wrote an elegy to a houseplant not two days ago). But am I going to write a sonnet to chocolate or to cozy blankets? Probably not. I tried the Inktober prompts but yesterday’s was “Heavy” which didn’t lead me anywhere and today’s is “Sweep.” Maybe I can play with sweeping and witches and Halloween. If that’s not what comes next, well, current me typing this can’t tell you where future me who wrote that got her idea.
… you know the second hardest part? Iambic pentameter. I’m getting iambic tetrameter regularly and pentameter only rarely and by stretching. This is really frustrating. I’ve had this as my rough draft for several days and I want to do a sonnet but I’m having trouble actually making it come.
Well This is Vexing
It is a silly thing to write a poem,
A mere collection of some lines and rhyme.
You hope your words will find some brand new home
Where they can waste somebody else’s time.
Why is it now the words begin to flow?
Why is it doggerel comes easily?
When I turn back from topics that I know
Instead I write a thing that’s just silly.
I couldn’t turn a story into verse,
I couldn’t make tonight’s events flow right.
And yet, without much need to now coerce,
These rhymes just jump out, nearly taking flight.
Am I a poet doomed to levity?
Or can I sometimes write something pretty?
(Future me who wrote this still can’t believe this is what I wrote.)
Intellectual Property of Elizabeth Doman
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