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"...the writing of poems....
the call of overhearing music that is not yet made."
Mary Kinzie, in A Poet's Guide to Poetry
Poetry is the lyrical rendition of the rhythm of sight, sound, touch, taste; of living, seen through the eyes of a poet and consigned to paper and laptop and keyboard until it can be read aloud. Yes, all poetry needs to be read aloud, to savor the rhythm in the words, and revive the images the poet conscribed to the pages of a book or computer. 
I am honored to be your guest host for this edition of the WDC Poetry Newsletter. I would like to take this opportunity to sing a little song that's near a millenium old, yet as new today as it was when the first voices gave it breath |
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The little song, or sonnet, still resounds in the voices of poets today. The tone, or pitch, or key may change, but that's the beauty of it. Each poet's voice, and each reader's/listener's voice (yes, read all poetry aloud), creates a sibilant symphony to embrace and amplify the passion and tension of the poet's vision.
Passion and tension form the base perhaps of most poetry, but the sonnet, from its lyric origins in the thirteenth century has evolved while maintaining its integrity as a means to focus and resolve or reveal the tension by comparing two ideas, states of mind, events, ideals. The sonnet is global, a harmony of solos to retain its vitality and versatility of expression.
I prevously explored the little song over a year ago with you, focusing on the similarities among the basic variations. Today I would like to explore some of the differences in tone, and measure, that make it so versatile a form of expression, while retaining its vitality and integrity. Just as each singer's voice is just a bit different when giving voice to a song, the inflection and perception of the items or ideas explored changes just a bit the sound of the 'little song.'
The essential element of the sonnet, I believe, is not the familiar fourteen lines (can be longer or shrter), nor the iambic pentameter (some have differing rhythmic schemes), nor the near meditative depth of focus. I think it's the change, or volta that concudes, amplifies, or refutes the previous stanza(s). I hear that as the crescendo in a song where the voice is raised or lowered to fix the image in the listener's ear, express a moment in time. I will include later a link to the newsletter where we explored the similarities, as now I invite you to explore with me the varieties. Many of the variations are on the English (or Shakespearean) sonnet form, which is he most flexible with respect to the placement of the volta.
The sonnet has embraced the myriad voices of poets over the centuries since the first notes were sounded, heard, and carried forth. From its nascent voice, changes in tone and voice were heard. Elizabethan poets linked sonnets with repeated lines, as did Elizabeth Barrett Browning later in the familiar Sonnets from the Portuguese to create Sonnet Sequeces or Sonnet Cycles, forming a Chain of Sonnets to link a series of moments.
In more modern times and a more global climate, the sonnet has become more flexible and versatile in cadence, in use of near-rhyme and alternating rhythms, and use of images from common life for comparison and/or emphasis (Edna St. Vincent Millay, and later, Mark Jarmon). But the volta, though movable, remains I believe the key identifier and focal point of the form, identifying it as the 'little song' that resounds today no less than it did centuries ago. Consider some of the following variations in the tune.
Caudate Sonnet is a recognizable Shakespearean sonnet with a cauda or tail of three additional lines to sum up the ideas expressed. This is in addition to the volta shifting or amplifying the focus in the second sextet. The first line of the cauda is a short line rhyming with a line of the base sonnet, and the following two lines revert to the iambic pentameter to form a rhyming couplet.
Rhyme scheme may be (note may) iambic pentameters =
- abab cdcd efef gg e(shortened iambic) hh
Curtal Sonnet was first voiced by Gerard Manley Hopkins as a 10 1/2 line form of sonnet, maintaining the iambic rhythm for all but the last line.
Rhyme scheme = abcabdbcdc - 'd' being the volta and the final 'c' being shortened to five beats instead of the ten.
Shadow Sonnet really focuses on sound. Created by Amera M. Anderson, any standard sonnet rhyme scheme is acceptable, and iambic pentameter is not required, allowing nine to ten syllables per line. A volta is always present, identifying it as a form of sonnet. The 'shadow' is created by repeating the sound of the beginning and ending of each line. Remember, reading aloud, it's the sound, so homophones are acceptable (i.e., see and sea).
A rhyme scheme = abab cdcd efef gg
Remember the first word of each line also sound of abab cdcd efef gg
HexSonnetta created by Andrea Dietrich, combines the traditions of Italian and English sonnet forms, using two six-line stanzas (Italian style) with an interlocking rhyme scheme in each; the first presenting theme, and the second (with volta) changing the tone. The couplet at the end summarizes or offers a twist. The poem is written in iambic syllables but numbering six (instead of traditional ten). It's interesting also that two six-line stanza lead to the summation (reinforcing the 'hex' rhythm).
Rhyme scheme = abbaab cddccd ee
Jeffreys Sonnet first voiced by Scott J. Alcorn also deviates from the iambic pentameter. It is composed of two sextets with cross-rhymed couplets linking the first sextet that presents the theme with the second, with volta to change the tone. The second also cross-rhymes at the end with the ending couplet. The syllable count is also shortened to eight per line, making it isosyllabic. See how verstile this is, while maintaining the itegrity of the sonnet's intensity set off by the volta
Rhyme scheme = aabccb (b)ddeffe (e)gg
NOTE: the letters in parenthesis are the cross-rhymes.
Lannet is another recent variation on the sonnet which retains the juxtaposition of theme and tone, with the volta to focus intensity or create a shift. Although this form maintains a 10-syllable count per line for fourteen lines, the arrangement of chords is up to the poet with respect to meter and rhythm, and the use of quatrains or sextets as precursors to the final couplet.
Rhyme scheme = There is NO End-Line rhyme scheme.
Internal rhyme only is allowed - think internal assonance and alliteration.
So, you see, the Sonnet has grown and evolved along with its 'singers' over the past 800 or so years. The most recent I found, Alfred Dorn Sonnet, first 'sung' in 2006 and recognized by The Formalist (guidelines below).
Further detail and examples of these and the forms first explored by us in a prior newsletter I was honored to present http://www.writing.com/main/newsletters/action/archives/id/2139, as well as other versions of the 'little song' can be found both here in our Community "Poetry Forms" [13+] and at http://www.shadowpoety.com/resources.
Publication Opportunities ~ The resurgence of the Sonnet in recent poetic expression has created opportunities for fresh voices to be heard and sung across land and seas ~ I've included some submission guidelines if you'd like to add your 'little song' to the lyric symphony of inspired sonnets.
http://www.newenglandshakespeare.org/sonnet_contest.htm
http://www.rattle.com/submissions.htm
http://measure.evansville.edu/SonnetContest.htm
My further resources in this exploration include ~
http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5791
http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/sonnet1.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/sonnet
http://www.sonnets.org/sterner.htm
In the meantime, for inspiration and your enjoyment, I offer a below some of the challenges that inspire the sonnet’s voice in our Community, along with a few 'little songs’ penned by our members. |
Some of the voices in our Community ~ hear their 'little songs' resound in their myriad forms and them hear also your voice (a review, perchance )
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And how about these challenges to inspire the Muse Poetic
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As a guest host,
I ask only that you embrace your own 'little song'
that your voice resound.
Yes that's my way of saying 'read and write all poetry aloud'
I will be back next month to pursue some more poetic exploration as I learn more from the talented and creative Poetry Editorial Team.
I invite you to share with me your sonnet in traditional or exploratory form ~
I will comment on (review) any submitted to this newsletter and perhaps include some when I return.
Until we next meet,
Keep Writing!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Poetry: May 20, 2009 Issue [#3060]
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