| Sonnet writers unite.... come try your hand.
Posted: 6/17/2005 9:23:49 PM | Its one of my most favorite forms of poetry, although it always seems to be a struggle to get it a little right. It is very satisfying. So dig in try your hand....
Here are the rules and a little discription I found on the web.
The Sonnet
This fourteen line poem was popularized by an Italian man in love. Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) wrote the world's earliest sonnets. He worked on these poems dedicated to Laura for most of his adult life. They were published in his Canzoniere or Song-book shortly before he died. These poems became an immediate literary success and they influenced poets for centuries. Shakespeare himself was influenced by Petrarch's poems.
The sonnet is not a dead form in any sense. Many modern poets still write sonnets. The poem's small size and tight focus provide a canvas for poets to explore facets of a single theme. Yeats, e.e.cummings, Christina Rosetti, and Edna St. Vincent Millay are the names of but a few poets who have written in this form.
In English sonnets are usually written in iambic pentameter. Let's look at two of the three main types of sonnets. Rhyme and stanzaic patterns are what distinguish sonnet types.
A. Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet
Stanza Pattern: The first stanza (the octet) is eight lines long, the second stanza (the sestet) is only six. This is the most common form of the sonnet.
As in all sonnets, each poem contains one main subject. In Petrarchan sonnets, however, the topic or tone generally changes on the ninth line. This turning is known as the "volta."
Nell Altizer spoke of the Petrarchan Sonnet "with its unbalanced architecture, its license to roam sensously among rhymes, the sexy thud, thud, thud its final orchestration can bring out - is an especially open room for raw rage which often accompanies passion."
Rhyme Scheme: abbaabba/cdcdcd Or abbaabba/cdecde or Or abbaabba/ cdddcdd.
B. Shakespearean or Elizabethan Sonnet:
The bard had to make this medium his own. Shakespearean sonnets were written in 3 quatrains and one couplet. Often today they are printed in one long stanza. Academics still conjecture about whether his sonnets were written to a man or a woman.
Rhyme Scheme: abab cdcd efef gg | |
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| Till Stars Grow Old (Shakespearean style)
Posted: 6/17/2005 9:26:12 PM | Love me, today, for now I breathe and live,
And young though hardly without pain or ache;
I’ve waited, and for you this heart I give,
Who knows of morn, my breath this Earth may take?
In you the song of life is new to sing,
But know that life may run to moment's end,
And without bliss, that at your door does ring,
A sad refrain will bleed this lover's pen;
And I may leave this life a hollow'd soul,
Without your kiss of bliss upon my lips;
So dust may be this lovers final toll,
This empty heart that I would never miss;
But true to you I am till stars grow old,
To hear your vow before my blood goes cold.
PoetbyNight (c)2005 | |
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| Till Stars Grow Old (Shakespearean style)
Posted: 6/19/2005 5:29:50 PM | I've read many of your posts I know you can do this, so come on poets show us your sonnets. Don't be afraid it will only make you grow as a poet.  | |
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| My Heart My Soul (Shakespearean sonnet style)
Posted: 6/21/2005 12:14:13 AM | My Heart My Soul a Sonnet
Within without my soul entrust to you
my shield is down, my sword to you my light
by Sun by Moon this want of you bemuse
let song of love calm ache of heart this night
The storm abates to fallen rains my sweet
though chaos reins through quest of heart my love
and time and place are pains to spear so deep
and other hands conceive to cage this dove
Twin flames a fire can not deny this fate
and though your burn is not yet dead to love
refuse the need to search outside my gates
if not you choose to slap me with your glove
and endings be this poets written part,
forever cut in two, this Soul, this Heart.
PoetbyNight (c)2005
(I hope someone else tries there hand at this form soon. ) | |
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| My Heart My Soul (Shakespearean sonnet style)
Posted: 6/21/2005 9:30:52 PM | I like your work, PoetbyNight.
=======================
The clustered chords bespeak my mood tonight
as Shostakovich sweats through falling fifths
I cannot any longer pick a fight
Through your lies and ever-desperate shifts.
To come this far, both you and I should know
A devolution scrolls out for the mass
Of other lovers hoping as they go
That each alone forgive the screams that pass.
Hear me now, and make your choice clear-eyed
As the cellos scrape the margins of your mind
It's a paltry show in keeping dignified
While looking at reactions from behind.
The coda shortens on the minor B
As Dmitri's sullen photo stares at me. | |
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| My Heart My Soul (Shakespearean sonnet style)
Posted: 6/22/2005 12:47:04 AM | rory.... that was quite amazing. Loved the flow and word choices. Its more complicated then I tend to write which makes it more of an interesting read to absorb.
Write on Poet... | |
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| Kiss Me but Once
Posted: 6/22/2005 12:53:36 AM | Kiss Me but Once
If you could know the soul within the Sea,
That saw the light of life in pastel eyes;
Whose heart now lost to one who knows not me,
Dare I, but show this love from hidden guise?
The day may come that I may brave this dare,
and drunkenly may talk in stuttered ways,
to fumble at the sight of lips so fair,
Oh hope, you do not laugh, of this I pray.
A kiss, a kiss is all I want and dream;
Tis, but a simple gift to part, my dear.
For it would be like soft and supple cream,
And not so bad that you may shed a tear.
So here I am as brave as fools can be,
Kiss me but once, before I run and flee.
PoetbyNight (c)2000 | |
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| Kiss Me but Once
Posted: 6/22/2005 5:05:58 PM | I like the tone, and an excellent final two lines.
Well, here's something in a twisted troubadour kind of way, but in keeping with the Shakespearean sonnet mode. A lot of fun to write.
=================================================================
With hair of shining straw you flip and smooth
As sun strikes crossways down those tresses fair
It's fair to say you say nothing to soothe
A kingly excitation to your lair.
And I've been waiting patiently, you see,
For this temporary power-monger
To burn out as he's prostrate on his knee
And sick with lust and unrequited hunger.
Fool him expertly, my dear, I know you can
Waylay the fool with words of promise sweet
Till, hopeful, glad, deferring to your plan,
He struts back to his throne on slippered feet.
We'll strike him thusly 'tween the shoulder blades
And take the Kingdom, make love till the sun fades. | |
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| Kiss Me but Once
Posted: 6/23/2005 12:48:18 AM | rory.... great fun to read that one. a singular plotting sonnet.  | |
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| The Kiss
Posted: 6/23/2005 1:26:03 AM | The Kiss
Today I spied the lips of Goddess Red
So deep and full with want my mind gone mad
The hours I could but swim within their bed
And dare the gods to say that I not have!
The living night has gifts n'er seen before
This mouth has sought the goddess of the wind
Who's full embodied lips not one ignores
And I confess to crave this taste of sin
Is sacrifice to be the bane I pay
This mortal heart is weak inside of this
To raise my sword today within the fray
The madness I now live to have her kiss
Is love not blind and reckless to the core,
This answer I will get and maybe more.
PoetbyNight (c)2001 | |
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| The Fire Sonnet
Posted: 6/24/2005 11:36:07 PM | The Fire Sonnet
Oh Flame of love 'tis cruel you mock at me,
And banish me from lusts I'll never know;
But strong this blood so hot it craves of need,
May soon be embers with the faintest glow?
Oh fuel of want, where is the touch of dreams,
This hunger aches at lovely eyes so bright;
Dare to wish I'd be the fire that you scream!
Again, Again, through every lonely night.
And still I wait for one of luscious heat,
Whose lips and thighs would melt the coldest bed;
Are you afraid to taste this sinful treat?
Or is your hunger ready to be fed?
So come and light this flame of our desire,
And lay with me to feed this inner fire.
PoetbyNight (c)2005 | |
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| Irish Eyes
Posted: 7/11/2005 9:02:50 PM | Irish Eyes
As crimson streaks the sky and locks so fair,
the Ocean whispers songs by Erin’s Shores.
I dream of you each night in passions dare,
to kiss those lovely lips so sweet and more.
What stars see you on evening sparkled strolls?
I watch you with my heart this song of night;
Aurora paints those eyes an em’rald glow,
I’ll sing of them and you to souls delight.
I know your life is kept with him in trust;
And I was just the passion for your night.
But sometime since that touch of lovers rush;
An ember grows within to burn so bright.
I’ll wait to hope you read these Lovers lines,
Since I have lost my heart to Irish Eyes.
PoetbyNight (c)2005 | |
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| my first sonnet, here it goes
Posted: 7/11/2005 9:39:32 PM | The Night
The sun has long ago set,
Leaving the moon shining bright,
A sight that you could not regret,
Welcoming in the night.
As the moon rises into the sky,
Casting down its glow,
It causes a twinkle in your eye,
That only you should know.
You gaze up and let out a sigh,
How you hate to leave this scene,
But you must say goodbye,
Even though it is serene.
You close your eyes and let your dreams ignite,
For when you wake up it shall be light. | |
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| Love's Eternal Seal
Posted: 7/12/2005 4:42:27 AM |
I did not write your name upon the sand
The tide to come and wash away the script
For while there was potential in my hand
I made but marks, the rest I simply skipped
I did not write your name across the sky
The wind to stir and scatter, like a puff
For while my eye was straining up so high
Too well I knew that this was not enough
I did not write your name upon the page
The errant hand a menace to the book
For while my words could step another stage
Those nowhere near the measures that it took
Inside my soul your name I finally penned
And there it’s etched, forever, without end | |
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| sonnet writers unite
Posted: 7/12/2005 12:09:40 PM | Snow Angel Sonnet
The wind is here; the snow has come, cold heart,
And I, a shadow in this drifting life;
You were my inner crystal full and part,
Tonight, I walk alone without your light.
The snow has covered all that I once knew,
But cold is not enough to numb this pain;
I walk this lonely path in search of you,
Although your life has gone and left this plane;
The star's at least will be my guides tonight,
Where ever they may lead I know not why?
Away from that same spot you lost your life;
Please take me to a place where I won't cry!
I 'll lay and make snow angels like before,
Oh dear, theirs yours a kiss from heavens door. | |
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| sonnet writers unite
Posted: 7/12/2005 1:47:55 PM | | I gave it my best shot. lol. I might come back on a later day and try another. For some reason I don't find them tough to write. | |
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| sonnet writers unite
Posted: 7/12/2005 1:53:15 PM | With all due respect, it is easy to not find something
difficult to write, when, in fact, we're not writing sonnets.
Sonnets are one of the hardest forms to master, by
simple virtue of what is called meter, the Shakespearian
or English sonnet being done in iambic pentameter. I
liked your poem, but it's not a sonnet. | |
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| sonnet writers unite
Posted: 7/12/2005 1:56:05 PM | Merging Flames
I dreamt of you upon that distant dream,
My faith so strong it could not help but be:
Let salmon die while struggling up the stream
They yet must swim unto that nth degree!
I pushed ahead with fierceness found in flame,
That takes the field the August winds have dried,
And all the while the notion of your name
Was such a thought I never pushed aside!
I found you then in pushing thus ahead,
But this was not an accidental meet:
The passion pit had rendered you as red
As all that flame so haunting in my heat!
You’d had your dreams the same as I’d had mine,
So merged the flame that was the bottom line! | |
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| sonnet writers unite
Posted: 7/12/2005 1:58:33 PM | The Transformation
Your tender touch is more than I can bear,
And tears do stream from out these eyes of mine,
At times to think I’m hanging by a hair,
A chill that runs way up and down my spine.
I think of you from morning into night,
And in my sleep you occupy my dream,
And so it goes you’re never out of sight,
Forever, there, an angel, and supreme.
It’s nothing like those pictures from the past,
With all my views on how things ought to be:
Upon the scene, emotions all amassed,
It’s hard to think that this was ever me.
But here I am, as docile as a dove,
And all because you’ve given me your love. | |
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| sonnet writers unite
Posted: 7/12/2005 2:21:15 PM | 652
Rachel
17 May 2000
Running wild
running free
Diane's child
Rachel Bybee
Off to college to learn
along with new books
now it is her turn
to get those boyish looks
Growing up is what we do
our bodies and feet
so why not you
young, at times bitter and sweet
Fresh worlds for old, each day beginning
neither brought nor sold, when exaltation is winning
©2005 Regina Publications
poettothecars | |
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| sonnet writers unite
Posted: 7/12/2005 7:07:31 PM | | ^^^^ Please read the rules of either sonnet form as outlined in PoetbyNight's OP. | |
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Garf
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Joined: 4/4/2005
Msg: 22 | |
| sonnet writers unite
Posted: 7/12/2005 11:27:50 PM | "Fair night" to the devil I cry
I miss you sadly, I reach for your kiss
Once loved, now lost, and a song has been heard
For the Devil's heart I recite
A song, a poem, a lesson in bliss
I faced men alone, this seems so absurd
Now that I have what I have gained
I have misery, torment, but most of all: pain
Somebody told me that the Devil might cry
I think that the person who told me has lied
Once the torment was over
And the pains' come undone
The suffering still lingers
And no Devil has come
To take me away from all of this
The Devil has lied....
She has no kiss
(I started this as a sonnet, but it evolved into this mess, lol...sorry.) | |
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| sonnet writers unite
Posted: 7/13/2005 12:20:14 AM | The Rose I Loved
A tear I weep tonight, and your still gone,
But this, that dream, that wish was long ago;
And you my love, of yesterday live on,
As I in pain, relive your heart gone cold.
Where is the flower I once held at night?
Whose face and flesh enslaved my inner soul;
You were the one I kissed by starry lights,
And lost to who and why I'll never know.
I gave to you a love that should have lived,
But now I know that flowers always die.
You promised something you could never give,
And covered it with sweet and pretty lies.
But still the Rose I loved is in my heart,
Forever to remain and never part.
PoetbyNight (c) 2005 | |
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| sonnet writers unite
Posted: 7/13/2005 12:30:18 AM | | yes try and follow the proper form when writing this type of poem. The challenge is to write your poem and fit it to form with proper meter or iambic pantamiter. I find that that is the touchest part. But the fun is in trying it and meeting the rules, each form of poetry has its rewards. Free verse or other structures and they all make you grow as a writer. | |
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| sonnet writers unite
Posted: 7/13/2005 1:16:40 AM | 4089
Sounded Entry
13 July 2005
There came a day of entry
When she knocked upon his door
Of this moment of exit meant to be
As if it could have never happened before
Thus was reality in a world void to truth
Heaven sent towards opportunity made
Where it was God alone holding such proof
In bringing hope to a heart dull to fade
Lighting a path and a lamp to shine
To shadow footsteps held in name been
Electrical to thunder amplified echoing time
An appellation holden to eyes unseen
Two hearts centered in word of birth
Value through kinship sanctified over worth
"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other,
but in looking outward together in the same direction."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
French writer (1900 - 1944)
poettothecars | |
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