Sonnets

[whitman]

Is the sonnet still a relevant form?

[paradoxical]

You're about to start quite the discussion. :thumbs_up

My answer? No, they are completely irrelevant and have been for a very long time. Study them if you wish, you may learn something. But absolutely no one writes like that anymore.

Now a few of our more distinguished posters will be along shortly to set this matter straight. :rofl:

[/dev/null]

Well, modernist poets used sonnets. Postmodernist poets still use. Neruda's "Cien poemas de amor" was just only 50 years ago, which isn't much in the context of poetry's history. Frost, Cummings, Lorca, Borges... up to New Formalists and beyond.

The question is, what are your criteria for relevance?

[MorpheusSandman]

This could be an interesting discussion, but I think asking if they're "relevant" is the wrong question. Relevant to whom? Relevant as in they're still used amongst prominent poets? If so, then the answer is yes. Most every modern poet writing in classic forms (and there are more than a handful) have written sonnets, and there have been many great and popular sonnets by major poets written in the 20th century.

To me, sonnets are a superb form because they have perhaps the most versatile and dramatically expoloitable structure in all of poetry. The Petrarchan model (8/6) emphasizes a problem/resolution construction, while the Shakespearean model (4/4/4/2) emphasizes three variations with an aphoristic conclusion construction. The traditional line 9 "volta" offers all kinds of opportunities for dramatic turns, be they in tone or speaker or speech-act or tense or agent etc. The possibilities are nearly endless, and even Shakespeare, in all of his genius, didn't exploit them all. Sonnets are really only as limiting or limited as the imagination of the poet, so they should remain relevant as long as there are poets who still have the temerity to accept the anxiety of influence and stand the in shadow of giants.


no one writes like that anymore.Writes like what? The sonnet form doesn't impose any particular style on the poet...

[whitman]

excellent answer morpheus

[Darcy88]

All forms are always relevant. That is the nature of art. Materials from the "past" retaken, remade in the present and thus made original.

I don't write sonnets. The form is hard to write in. I am lazy as a poet. I have a feeling that the attitude against rhyme and the traditional forms relates more to this laziness on the part of writers and audiences than it does on any lack of viability in specific so called "outdated" forms.

[MorpheusSandman]

All forms are always relevant.Well, some forms do completely fall by the wayside and completely go out of usage. Something like ballades (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballade) are extremely difficult to write in languages that aren't as rich in rhymes as Italian. But even then you'll often see modern poets resurrecting ancient forms for, if nothing else, experimental purposes. It is strange, though, how certain forms go in and out of popularity (which is why I meant it depends on what one means by "relevant"), as villanelles and sestinas became very popular at one point in the 20th century.


I have a feeling that the attitude against rhyme and the traditional forms relates more to this laziness on the part of writers and audiences than it does on any lack of viability in specific so called "outdated" forms.Indeed. Patrick Gillespie wrote a superb article on this here (http://poemshape.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/why-dont-poets-write-in-rhyme/) that explicitly illustrates that one reason the modernists began writing in free-verse is because they felt they couldn't write formal verse as well as the masters (although, ironically, they both worked at perfecting their formal skills before dedicating their creativity to free verse).

[JBI]

English poets still tend to regard writing the perfect sonnet as an integral part of career and development. The form is the most present of all forms in English.

Is it as relevant as it was in Philip Sidney's time? Well no, but it is still a very important form - as it has been. Writing a good one is akin in the poetic world to showing your worth as a poet.

The main problem is, very few people can pull off a Shakespearean Sonnet - most need to use an Italian gridwork, or at least convention. It has become a challenge poets seem to set out to beat.

[MorpheusSandman]

The main problem is, very few people can pull off a Shakespearean Sonnet - most need to use an Italian gridwork, or at least convention.Could you elaborate on this? I'm not quite sure what you mean...