by Christine Swint
Sonnet LIV
by William Shakespeare
O! HOW much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly
When summer’s breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo’d, and unrespected fade;
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall vade, by verse distils your truth.
This is the sonnet I memorized for my ninth-grade literature class in high school. I understood back then that the poem advised me not to count on mere outward appearances, but returning to the verses as a mature woman, I appreciate even more the message of the rose’s lingering perfume after beauty fades.
The Shakespearean sonnet consists of fourteen lines of iambic pentameter verse, with the following rhyme scheme: abab/cdcd/efef/gg. In other words, there are three quatrains, and a final couplet. Each line has ten syllables, with the stress placed on every other syllable.
In addition to the outward form, within a traditional sonnet the ideas flow in a pattern prescribed by the rhyme. The first three quatrains develop the idea, while the couplet seals the poem with a conclusion.
Shakespeare, like many writers, probably learned about composing a sonnet in school. Before his time, most sonnets were of the Italian variety, known as the Petrarchan sonnet.
Like the original thinker he was, Shakespeare changed the rules to write what suited him and the particular music of the English language (English has fewer rhymes than Romance languages, making the Italian sonnet more restrictive for Anglophones).
After the Bard, other poets took license with the sonnet, John Milton and Edmund Spenser being the most well-known 17th-century poets to make their mark on this famous form.
Although Shakespeare would not be able to recognize today’s sonnets, I think he would approve of the path modern poets have taken with the form. Just as he broke with his Italian predecessors, today’s poets are arranging the fourteen lines in ways to suit our current speech patterns. A fine example is “American Sonnet (10)” by Wanda Coleman.
Coleman varies the line lengths and uses internal rhyme rather than end rhymes. The form of the sonnet is recognizable in the flow of ideas and images, and in the final two lines that seal the poem.
A fun writing exercise for me has been my exploration of bout-rimé sonnets. This is a writing game, started in France as a joke in the seventeenth century, and popularized in England during the Victorian era.
The game is a collaboration between poets. One poet chooses the end words for the sonnet, and everyone writes a sonnet using those words. I’m including two sets of end words for you, a rhyming set and a non-rhyming set for those who eschew rhyme.
The caveat is to use each word in the same order, as an end word, and to only write fourteen lines. Those are the rules of the game!
Rhyming end words: visible, stage, scribble, old age, touching, fingers, fetching, tigers, buzzkill, joy ride, downhill, high tide, harpoon, high noon.
Non-rhyming end words (from Read Write Poem’s random word prompt!): seize, prairie, fade, cartilage, globule, pardon, dollop, collapse, carte blanche, wheeze, ululate, value, tea, -zing!
Two Victorian-era writers of bout-rimé sonnets are Christina Rosetti and Dante Gabriel Rosetti, members of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
Michelle Johnson introduced me to the bout-rimé sonnet. If you’d like to read some of the poems we wrote with her end-line words, check out her post at Poefusion.
Another interesting tidbit about bouts-rimés is a chapbook written by Stephen Cushman. Fashioned Pleasures (Parallel Press) is a collection of bout-rimé sonnets based on the rhyme scheme of Shakespeare’s sonnet number 20. To read about Cushman’s interesting inspiration for the collection, read the article by Kristin Knipschild at the University of Wisconson website.
by Christine Swint
Here’s the long and short of it …
Can we really write 30 poems in 30 days? Yes, we can!
This past November, I participated in NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month. After joining Dana’s group, Read Write Poem, I used the challenge of posting every day to write a poem a day. I was able to write 30 poems by exploring the world of short forms.
In light of the upcoming NaPoWriMo, we thought it would be helpful to round up several short forms for everyone to play with. Who knows, it might become your new favorite way to write!
- Pleiades: This is a modern form invented in 1999 by Craig Tigerman. The Pleiades, named after the constellation also known as the seven sisters from Greek mythology, consists of seven lines of seven syllables each. The title is one word, and each line starts with the same letter as the title.
- Cadae: Another form based on counting syllables, the cadae follows the sequence of the first seven digits of Pi (which equals 3.141592). The first line consists of three syllables, the second one syllable, and so on. You could include several stanzas, or just one. Another variation would be to write three words for the first line, one word for the second line, etc.
- Fib: The fib is similar to the cadae, in that the form is based on a sequence of numbers (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21). It too is a modern form. There are several ways to write a fib, but the most common way I’ve seen is to write a one syllable line for the first two lines, two syllables for the second, etc. This form creates a great visual effect, because the Fibonacci curve found in nature reveals itself on the page. (See Prompt # 11 where we explored this form in Januray.)
You can also read more about the fib at Gottabook, site of author Gregory K., who coined the title “fib”:
- Rothko: I’ve never written a Rothko poem, but I’m going to soon. There are three basic guidelines to writing one: have a Rothko painting in front of you, write three lines of poetry, each containing three words, and include three colors. If you follow this link to About Poetry, you can also read about the Pollock. Maybe you have your own favorite painter. Why not invent your own short form based on that artist’s work?
- Nonet: The nonet contains nine lines. The first line contains nine syllables, the second eight, etc … (9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1).
Besides these forms, you might already enjoy American Sentences, a form Dana brought to us for our first prompt (way back in November).
This is a short but sweet list to get you started. If you have a favorite little form you’d like to share, leave us a link, and we’ll thank you!
by Tom Adam
Repetition is one of the pillars of poetry. Sometimes the repetition is of words and phrases (as in sestinas, ghazals, or villanelles), sometimes it’s a repetition of sound (rhyme, alliteration, assonance), sometimes the rhythm of the words (which we most clearly see in formal meters like iambic pentameter). All these types of repetition are used to reinforce certain elements in the poem or to bring greater cohesiveness.
Most poetic forms are based on some form of repetition and use it to create specific movements through the poem. Along with the villanelle, the pantoum is one of the most highly repetitive poetic forms.
Harmony of Evening by Charles Baudelaire
Translated by A. S. Kline
Now those days arrive when, stem throbbing,
each flower sheds its fragrance like a censer:
sounds and scents twine in the evening air:
languorous dizziness, Melancholy dancing!
Each flower sheds its fragrance like a censer:
the violin quivers, a heart that’s suffering:
languorous dizziness, Melancholy dancing!
the sky is lovely, sad like a huge altar.
The violin quivers, a heart that’s suffering:
a heart, hating the vast black void, so tender!
the sky is lovely, sad like a huge altar:
the sun is drowned, in its own blood congealing.
A heart, hating the vast black void, so tender:
each trace of the luminous past it’s gathering!
The sun is drowned, in its own blood congealing…
A vessel of the host, your memory shines there.
The pantoum is a series of quatrains rhyming A-B-A-B where the second and fourth lines of one stanza become the first and third lines of the next stanza. As in “Harmony of Evening,” pantoum traditionally feature lines that are fully end-stopped (the poem above does not rhyme because it is a translation from French, but it does rhyme in French!) and the repeated lines are repeated verbatim. They can be of any length and generally just end without any special envoy or closure. Some modern authors of the Pantoum have loosened these constraints, as they have with most forms, but it is often written in the traditional way.
But, why write a pantoum at all? What is a pantoum going to do for my poem? What makes it special? I had said the villanelle was an excellent form to use when writing about obsession because the constant refrains always bring you back to the beginning of the poem, leading to a circular form. The pantoum, on the other hand, continues making forward progress throughout the poem. Each stanza brings new lines and new rhymes but the close repetition has a constant backwards pull. This makes the pantoum have a feel of “two steps forward, one step back.” Some poets use this halting progress to generate a feeling of ambivalence, some use it nostalgically. Regardless of the feeling it is used to generate, the constant repetition does force the pantoum to stay close to one idea; it has very little room for divergence.
The pantoum, though it often is, does not have to be ambivalent or dark or depressing or blah blah blah. Cecilia Woloch’s “Bareback Pantoum” has a wild exuberance to it. But Donald Justice’s “Pantoum of the Great Depression” is one of the most iconic pantoums in the English language.
Learn more at the poets.org page on the pantoum and A.E. Stallings “Another Lullaby for Insomniacs” at poetryfoundation.org.
by Tom Adam
Without making any judgments about the value of obsession in poetry, the villanelle is an excellent vehicle for obsession. The repeated use of the refrains force the poem to keep circling and grabbing onto a very small set of ideas. This repetition is the key element of the villanelle.
Villanelle of Change
by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Since Persia fell at Marathon,
The yellow years have gathered fast:
Long centuries have come and gone.
And yet (they say) the place will don
A phantom fury of the past,
Since Persia fell at Marathon;
And as of old, when Helicon
Trembled and swayed with rapture vast
(Long centuries have come and gone),
This ancient plain, when night comes on,
Shakes to a ghostly battle-blast,
Since Persia fell at Marathon.
But into soundless Acheron
The glory of Greek shame was cast:
Long centuries have come and gone,
The suns of Hellas have all shone,
The first has fallen to the last:—
Since Persia fell at Marathon,
Long centuries have come and gone.
A quick summation of the form: a fixed-form villanelle has five tercets rhymed a b a, and a quatrain rhymed a b a a, with the rhymes continuing throughout the poem. The first line of the villanelle is the first refrain, and is repeated as lines six, 12 and 18. The third line of the poem is the second refrain is repeated as lines 9, 15 and 19.
In notation, the villanelle would have this line structure:
A1
b
A2
a
b
A1
a
b
A2
a
b
A1
a
b
A2
a
b
A1
A
A1 and A2 are the refrains. On the positive side of things, you only write 13 lines and get a 19-line poem out of it. On the downside, there are only two rhyme sounds, and two of the lines have to be really good because they come up four times each.
Although the villanelle has a fairly rigid form when it comes to rhyme and repetition, it’s fairly open outside that. Traditionally, it has been written in hendecasyllables* (in Italian), alexandrines (in French), or iambic pentameter (in English), but many authors of the villanelle have avoided meter. The length is also flexible. The fixed form of 19 lines is typical of the villanelle, but as long as the rhyme and stanza structure are maintained, the villanelle can add or remove stanzas as needed. Some villanelles have been 50 or 80 lines long.
Another thing to consider is the use of enjambment. In “Villanelle of Change,” Robinson has ended most lines at syntactic breaks. Syntactic breaks and end-stopped lines are common, but there are some benefits to stronger enjambment, particularly with the refrains. If you write refrains that can be broken out and function as different parts of sentences, that gives you quite a bit more flexibility in shaping the poem but it does lessen the repetition. Enjambment can also help mellow the rhymes — since there are only two sounds, they can get overpowering.
At the Poetry Foundation website they have “Villanelle of Change” and 18 other villanelles. If you haven’t read it, I strongly recommend “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop. It is an excellent example of the form. And if anyone has copy of Anne Sexton’s My Friends, My Friend,” take note of how she shakes up the villanelle a bit.
*While Wikipedia may have quite a bit of useful information on many topics, there are a number of books with more authoritative information on prosody. I recommend:
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read write poem news- read write poem napowrimo anthology
June 20, 2010 | 1:36 pmThe Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Anthology is still in production. Selection, placement, layout and copyediting are taking longer than anticipated. Thank you for your patience. I hope to have the piece completed in July. For those who have emailed asking if they can be included, the May 7 deadline for submission of work stands. Those who met that deadline will be included. Please check the post on this site listing who I received submissions from by that date. If you submitted your work by the May 7 deadline in accordance with our guidelines and your name is not listed, send an email to info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org.
- read write poem napowrimo anthology
May 5, 2010 | 3:09 pmRemember that Friday* is the deadline for submitting work to the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Anthology. Check out the guidelines for submission in the main column (to the left). On May 8, we’ll post a news item listing everyone we’ve received work from. If you submitted work and your name is not on that list, please let us know. Thanks!
*I initially said “tomorrow,” but I meant to say “Friday.”
- napowrimo congratulations, and a reminder
April 24, 2010 | 12:05 pmIt’s the final week of the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge! Just 7 days left. With that, a reminder that Read Write Poem will culminate with the anthology featuring work from those who complete the challenge. A post with details for submitting to the anthology will be published May 1. Be sure you remove any information from the site that you want preserved — such as group content and personal messages. Those elements of the site will be removed May 1 as well. The main site will remain up as an archive.
- ‘underlife’ tour at january gill o’neil’s blog
April 20, 2010 | 8:11 pmJanuary Gill O’Neil’s virtual book tour has moved to her site and is underway now. Check out the lineup at Poet Mom.
 Archive for read write poem news »
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thank you and farewell As of May 1, 2010, Read Write Poem is no longer active.
In late May, an anthology featuring work from those who completed the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge will be published here and on issuu.com.
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