Sonnets

[Paulclem]

I've written a few sonnets over the past few months and I find them a very discursive medium. I wondered whether you find this when you write in this form.

I'd like to hear your experience of writing them.

[miyako73]

That's the case if you don't want to use a fresh voice. I think the sonnet form needs to be reformed (use your own form), deformed (break away from the convention), and performed (make it angry or even nasty not just love and romanticize).

My problem with sonnet is scansion. Who says you cannot stress articles or conjunctions? Do we use meter for musicality or hierarchy of words?

[Paulclem]

I take your point, but I think trying to become better at a type of form may well contribute to being better at another or even new type. I did find this when I switched from writing Haiku and Tanka to Cinkqu last year. Trying to become better a one form really helps with others - particularly in the case of line length.

The problem I have with the technicalities of poetry is I can't be bothered to learn the minutae of feet etc. I've forgotten what they refer to - if I ever did know in the first place. I find that a lines sound wrong, and that altering syntax often solves rough sounds and awkward construction. perhaps I'm adhering in my ignorence to scanson. I just go for what sounds right and not awkward or to disjointed.

[miyako73]

I like the disjointed and the imperfect. I look at them as textures. After all, masterpieces in all art forms are imperfect.

[Paulclem]

I like the disjointed and the imperfect. I look at them as textures. After all, masterpieces in all art forms are imperfect.

I see sonnet writing as a discipline which could lead to being better at different forms. I'm not advocating one style over another but I see practise in any style as having transferrable qualities. The same techniques can be employed in different forms.

[YesNo]

I used to write sonnets many years ago mostly Petrarchian.

Those exercises taught me how to use meter which I didn't understand. At the time, I thought the whole thing had to do with end-rhymes when it really has to do with how the accents fall within the line. If you get the meter right, you can capture the reader's attention with the repeated accent patterns in each line.

It also taught me how to write more concisely. In a Petrarchian sonnet there are two parts. The first eight lines have to make a point of some sort. The last six provide some sort of answer to that initial point. There are no words to waste. If I don't communicate something interesting quickly, I am wasting the reader's (which is usually my own) time.

There are things I don't like about sonnets. One is that there are five rather than four accents per line. I prefer to hear four or even three accents per line and feel that adding the extra foot or two is like padding the line. But this is the same problem with any pentameter line.

Another thing is that I prefer rhyme patterns that one might get in ballads or songs. The sonnet is a little more complicated.

[chevalierdelame]

I see sonnet writing as a discipline which could lead to being better at different forms.
I have found the same. The craftsmanship it takes to write a sonnet gives practice for other forms of poetry. As for the problem with the technicalities of feet, I never knew them to forget them. But I think if one goes by the ear, so to say, writing what sounds right, the effect would be very close to that if one had followed all the technicalities to the letter. Perhaps this method detracts from the discipline necessary to write a sonnet.
My favorite sonnet form is the Petrarchan sonnet. Do you have any favorite form?

[Paulclem]

I have found the same. The craftsmanship it takes to write a sonnet gives practice for other forms of poetry. As for the problem with the technicalities of feet, I never knew them to forget them. But I think if one goes by the ear, so to say, writing what sounds right, the effect would be very close to that if one had followed all the technicalities to the letter. Perhaps this method detracts from the discipline necessary to write a sonnet.
My favorite sonnet form is the Petrarchan sonnet. Do you have any favorite form?

No, no favourite form. It seems to me that the technicalities are subservient to the ear, and are not a measure by which I would judge a line or a full poem. It might be a useful analysis tool for understanding why a poem or a line doesn't work so well. When writing them though it's about the meaning, rhythm and how the imagery supports the poem's thrust. Does it work as that form of poetry? seems to be more important.

[Whosis]

It depends what you mean by discursive. I'm able to stay on subject in a poem, but as a whole, they pass between many subjects. And it's kind of a toss up between reasoning and intuition. Sometimes the subject is simple enough already to be known.

I'm finding it a medium that opens me up to more subjects, which is more likeable to generating aphorisms. It's become my daily commitment to writing.

[Fantods1]

I think writing in the sonnet form, as with any rigidly defined form, helps to keep one's thoughts organized and its usually easy to do. That being said I think writing without constraints after having practiced rigorous forms produces better work in a general sense.