"about writing sonnets" (a sonnet)

[inbetween]

in school we where supposed to write a sonnet and I first tried a dark, cryptic one and even finished it but I didn't like it. all these rules ... whenever something came up in my mind I had to make it fit into the scheme and then it didn't sound good anymore. so out of my desperation I produced the following.
(it's far from perfect but I hope it's amusing - a little at least)


About writing sonnets

I simply hate writing sonnets,
To me it’s a waste of time.
They are nothing but horrible corsets
For the spirit, the soul, the free mind.

Rhymes and syllables, everything has to fit
There’s a rule for every breath.
If you can’t match the scheme, just forget it
For it’s surely your sonnet’s death.

Yet I cannot deny they are beautiful,
They can be cryptic, witty, sublime.
They can be all that if produced by a skull
Like Shakespeare’s, Nerval’s or one equally fine.

But however well the old masters have done it,
I, myself, simply hate writing sonnets.

[PrinceMyshkin]

And yet you have done one! And without checking to see whether you've jumped through ALL the hoops, it strikes me as being both graceful and funny. Now I challenge you to write what Robert Frost characterized as being like playing tennis without a net: i.e., write some free verse!

(Poor Frost evidently could not see that one's objectives differ between tennis and verse. I might have retorted, had I been there, that writing structured, rhyming poetry was like trying to run the 100 yard dash with your shoe-laces tied to each other.)

[hillwalker]

Yes, I agree with Prince. You cracked it (even though line 5's a bit of a mouthful, it fits perfectly here in the context of what you are writing about because it goes out of its way to break the actual rule it is complaining about).

Your dark, cryptic sonnet is the one you should really concentrate on though - if that is what you enjoyed writing then that is what you are more likely to excel at in the future.

H

[inbetween]

to prince:
I once posted "passing me by" and noone read it... that discouraged me especially because it reaveals so much of myself...

to H:
the cryptic one was inspired by Nerval's EL DESDICHADO (not that I'm a Nerval fan I simply trippt over that one in a book) and needs some adjustment... but I don't think my future lies in writing sonnets... I detest following rules to much.. one could say I wasn't born to follow (I love to quote)


but thank you two for reakting so quickly

[qimissung]

You have done a terrific job of it! This is charming and oh, so witty. Perhaps you might try a modern sonnet, in which you write 14 lines with a turn, and 10 syllables per line, but no rhyme.

[qimissung]

Oh, I meant to say yours reminds me a bit of billy collins sonnet in its playfulness