barracuda wrote:freemason9 wrote:I don't actually know how to compose sonnets.
You might want to check out the
sonnets only thread for some pointers.
Or someone could just reveal that a sonnet is a 14-line poem, that's usually written in iambic pentameter if it's written in English, in which case it's also usually divided into three quatrains and a couplet (Shakespearean sonnet). Or sometimes an octave and a sestet (Petrarchan sonnet). But I have no idea how anybody has ever managed successfully to produce any of the latter. They look mad difficult to me.
In any event. It's a 14-line poem that (usually) takes one or the other of those prosodic structures , each of which traditionally follows one or the other of two rhyme schemes. Incidentally, "iambic" means the basic rhythmic unit of the poem is an iamb, which is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, and "iambic pentameter" means that each line of the poem is composed of five metric feet, all or most of which are iambs. Other kinds of metric feet include trochees, dactyls, and anaspests. And spondees. I know! Let's make a little metric glossary! Oh, come on. Please? I may never get another chance to turn this into something other than totally superfluous and trivial knowledge. Really? Thanks! Okay:
iamb = dot-dash
trochee = dash-dot
dactyl = dash-dot-dot
anapest = dot-dot-dash
spondee = dash-dash.
Now forget about everything that isn't either iambic or trochaic. Or spondaic. Because we are strictly into two-syllable scansion here, and that's final. So. Most sonnets written in iambic pentameter throw a trochee or spondee curve somewhere into the line. Maybe because it sounds good, or maybe because it means something meaningul-like, or maybe because it's just too difficult to express yourself solely by emphatically and unambiguously going "ta-Dum/ta-Dum/ta-Dum/ta-Dum/ta-Dum" for fourteen lines. Or even for one line. Because it sounds odd. Except when it doesn't. As in "and-Sum/mer's-Lease/hath-All/too-Short/a-Date" or 'but-Thy/e-Ter/nal-Sum/er-Shall/not-Fade" from
Sonnet 18. But, you know. That guy was gifted.
Right. So rhyme schemes. Traditionally, they're "abab cdcd efef gg" when Shakespearean (recommended), and they're "abbaabba" plus "cddcdd" (or "cdecde" or "cdcdcd") when they're Petrarchan (impossible). Or they kind of mix'n'match, as in what would be Petrarchan "Holy Sonnet 14" if John Donne had been able to resist that nice little ka-pow you get at the end when you end on a couplet:
Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
But he was gifted, too, so it's fine that he didn't. That's about all there is to it. I couldn't write one to save my life, personally. But that doesn't mean it's never fun to try. Even though -- excuse me for just one moment....
Ten Rules for 18 Years Ago.
....I've always totally sucked at just about every type of primarily creative writing that there is. As you can see.
by freemason9 » Sat Aug 15, 2009 11:39 pm 
