Michael Coy Poet Sonnet

Flatpack Sonnet Assembly Instructions

Stressed/unstressed syllables (ten to a line,
remember!) take their turns.  Fourteen in all
(that’s lines, not syllables), which often fall
in blocks of eight and six.  You’ve got that?  Fine.
Now for the rhymes.  Petrarchans intertwine
like this, in staggered couplets, as they sprawl
the page.  Americans are apt to call
Shakespearians, “English” sonnets.  These align

in neat alternatives, until the end,
which forms a rhyming couplet.  The sestet
(the six-line bit) has ordered rhymes, which tend
to vary.  Feminines are lines that get
a final, unstressed, syllable tacked on it.
And there, in fourteen lines, you have a sonnet.

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Darren White March 22, 2017 at 2:23 AM And that, my dear, nicely sums it up. Often people get fixated on the counting of syllables, which neatly kills the cadence and thus the sonnet. I love my octets enclosed rhymes, sometimes terza rima my sestet, it depends.... I love sonnets, but I never think them easy. PS has a few great sonnet writers by the way :) (I'm not one of them) Sonnet #4 is my favourite Shakespeare btw. Michael Coy March 22, 2017 at 2:45 AM I malways learn from you!