I *used* to be able to scan, and write iambic -- my swimming sonnet is
perfect (in metre, I mean):
http://www.sbpoet.net/2004/07/swimming_sonnet.html
At least, I think it is.
But I've lost the knack. And I do agree, in part -- I've seen poems
called sonnets that seem to bear no relation to the form other than
having fourteen lines, and I often wonder about that.
But surely there is some leeway?
On 1/22/08, kasper salonen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I think it's a beautiful poem. and I think it could be made a great
> sonnet with relatively few changes. this certainly doesn't scan, &
> that's the only thing that makes me not want to call this a sonnet.
>
> how well do you know metre? the first line of the final couplet is in
> perfect iambic pentameter, and that's what the rest of the poem should
> be in, for it to quality as a sonnet (to me).
>
> the better idea is to just keep it as it is, just correcting weird
> enjambments like "inev- / itable" -- I don't know what you were going
> for there.
>
> KS
>
> On 22/01/2008, sharon brogan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > ... I'm not sure what's allowed. I tried to respond to two prompts
> > with one poem: write a sonnet, and write about the frailty of human
> > effort:
> >
> > Ephemeral Sonnet
> >
> > We write on water, we poets. Most of
> > us. Some write on sand, brief calligraphy
> > for seagulls, shore-birds and the slow inev-
> > itable tide. A few write to stain the sea,
> >
> > so intense, the color of their ink salts
> > the words of their inheritors years
> > beyond their own decline. It's not their fault
> > that rules and ideologies emerge
> >
> > poem by innocent poem. Some writers
> > strive to obscure the mysterious; some try
> > to reveal the obvious. Some are rhymers;
> > some are not. Some leap at the chance to fly.
> >
> > In hopes they will endure, some write their odes
> > on stone. Stone is hard. But even stone erodes.
> >
> >
> >
> > Not as fun as Halvard's -- but is it a sonnet? If not, what must I do
> > to make it one?
> >
> > --
> >
> >
> > ~ SB | http://www.sbpoet.com | =^..^=
> >
>
--
~ SB | http://www.sbpoet.com | =^..^=
|