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sonnet writing poetry - A New Poetics

Humility--a sonnet

February 23rd 2009 01:08

When I went out to shed my dismal mood
Despite the driving snow that made my vision blurred,
I saw a smear of dark within the white, a bird
That picked among the mounds for bits of food.

Within this blinding storm it seemed absurd
That any creature sought its supper in the cold--
Indeed, that any could withstand the uncontrolled--

And so I sought to sate its search, deferred

By frost: with seed in hand, so kind and bold,
I slowly stretched my arm out far so it could feed.
But then it spread its shining golden wings--no need
For charity--and soared to heights untold.

So flap your wings, you pretty bird, and fly away
To lands of ample seed; I, without your wings, will stay.

I wrote this sonnet based on an experience I had during winter break around Christmas-time. Like my writing professors keep saying, "write what you know." And I try to do that as often as possible.

I just made up this sonnet form, sort of combining the interlocking rhyme scheme of the Spenserian (ababbcbccdcdee) with the closed structure of the Petrarchan (abbaabbacdccdc). I'm sure other poets have written this style before, but if they have, I haven't read them--or at least I don't remember them. I really like both the Spenserian and the Petrarchan's structures, so I figured why not combine the best of both worlds?

Although I deviated from the standard, I still made sure it was tightly structured. Each quatrain started with one line of iambic pentameter, then 2 lines of iambic hexameter, then another line of pentameter. I.E. 1 10-syllable line, 2 12-syllable lines, then a 10-syllable line again. Short,long,long,short,short,l ong,long,short, etc. The ending couplet's first line is hexameter, the last is 13 syllables. I did it on purpose, since I wanted the last line to be sort of ponderous with the semicolon and the commas.

Speaking of commas, the syntax of the poem is never grammatically incorrect. I try, in all my poetry, to retain syntax and coherence, rather than sacrificing those things just for the sake of rhyme. Sometime soon I will start discussing grammar in poetry. What place does grammar have in poetry? Does poetry have to conform to grammatical rules? Even if someone says "no," there are so many "rules" of grammar that lend the language to extreme flexiblity that even if you think a poem is "grammatically incorrect" it probably is "correct."

Part of the challenge of writing poetry--at least coherent, knowable poetry--is how to utilize the language and its rules--especially punctuation--to bring meaning and robust life to your poetry. I'll talk at more length about punctuation in poetry and the controversies surrounding the subject at a later time.

I hope you all enjoyed the poem, and if anyone has any comments about it or anything else I said, feel free to chime in. I love a good dialogue! Have a good night everyone!

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Posted By: Andrew Kerstetter - Category: formal poetry, sonnet, writing poetry, meter

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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost

January 18th 2009 21:01

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of the easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I love this poem because it's a perfect marriage of idea and form. This is actually a variation on the sonnet form, and it reminds me of the Spenserian sonnet's interlocking rhyme scheme, though this poem has a much narrower scheme. The rhyme scheme here is AABA BBCB CCDC DDDD. It almost seems like a combination of the Italian sonnet and Spenserian sonnet, taking the very narrow and repetitive rhyme of the Italian and interlocking it stanza by stanza like the Spenserian sonnet.

The poem's written in perfect iambic tetrameter, all except for the last line of the third stanza, which has an extra syllable. Although "the easy" can easily be melted together to sound like "th'easy", I think it would have actually been better if the word "the" had been taken out, to leave "of easy wind and downy flake." But, Frost was the master, and apparently the critics liked this poem, so maybe I should just keep my mouth shut.

The repetitive rhyme scheme and appealing meter make it sound like a song, and maybe that's the way he wanted it to sound anyway. It could easily be put to music. I like it because it talks about a regular, everyday occurrence and makes it beautiful in a simple way. I also appreciate this poem because it's tough to make a poem with such a tight rhyme scheme and meter make sense and be meaningful. But I suppose that's why Frost was famous. This is definitely one of my favorite poems of his.

Tomorrow I'll look at a villanelle I wrote recently, some qualities of which I don't really like, and I'll explain why. It's difficult to change a villanelle without completely re-writing it...I guess I'll figure it out.

See you tomorrow and have a good night!

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Posted By: Andrew Kerstetter - Category: formal poetry, sonnet, criticism, meter

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Messing with the Sonnet

January 16th 2009 22:36

"Grandpa"

He was the liveliest fossil on earth,
Tucking titanic truths away in small
Smiles seething with love for us all;
His dull hide poorly told his worth.

Defying the iron commands of Time,
He crossed the chasm of misspent years,
A stout oak stooping to shake off the rime
And scrape off the remnants of frozen tears

That could not restrain the ironic mirth
only old age could have given him.
He stretched his boughs in the face of the storm
One last time before his weathered form
Broke down and limbs grew frail and eyes went dim.
He died so he could have his final birth.

This poem is indeed about my own grandfather, on my dad's side, who passed away a couple years ago. We were never extremely close, and toward the end his mind started to leave as well as his body; however I still loved him a lot, and his absence put a hole in our family that is still palpably felt to this day. I tried to capture his character, especially toward the end of his life, and I think the imagery and metaphor are apt.

The form of this poem is a very twisted around sonnet. The rhyme scheme is abba cdcd efggfe. I like the scheme of the sestet but with my love of consistency I'll probably make the previous quatrains have a more synchronous rhyme scheme. I wasn't strict about the syllabe parameters of the lines; as long as it flows well, it's not a problem to me. Although, I do like having some semblance of uniformity, at least visually; so I kept the lines somewhat close in length.

The one thing, stylistically, that makes this poem not quite a real sonnet is that there's not really a clear volta; that is, like most sonnets do, there isn't a clear shift in meaning or focus. Except perhaps the very last line, which is unorthodox for sonnets, since most of them usually have the volta beginning in the last stanza or the final couplet, which this poem also doesn't have. But that's fine; it's more reminiscent of a Petrarchan Sonnet, that has an octave (eight line stanza) and a sestet (six line stanza) which rhyme abbaabba cdccdc or something like that.

I love sonnets, but I love messing with them even more. Sonnets, by definition, have 14 lines, a definite and clear rhyme scheme, and are usually written in a specific meter. A lot of sonnets use a conceit, or an extended metaphor, throughout the poem, which is the subject of the poem (like mine is the metaphor of a tree, and in Spenser's sonnet 37 it's the golden hair net) and a volta is usually somewhere in there. The less people follow these guidelines, the less they can claim to have written a sonnet.

Expect more sonnet variations from me in the future. Tomorrow I'll look at another villanelle I wrote, aspects of which I actually don't like...I felt that I made some of the language too formal for the sake of rhyme, but in the villanelle it's tough to change that without completely rewriting the poem, but we'll see. Have a nice night everyone!

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Posted By: Andrew Kerstetter - Category: formal poetry, sonnet, writing poetry, meter

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