|
Most sonnets are dishevelled, not just mine—in fact, as one come to
understand versification, one realizes that all poems written in strict forms
are the result of a dance between the ideal mathematics of form and the real
mess of language. It becomes the poet's choice, always, how far to bend the
form until it breaks into free verse.
In my sonnets, I do not observe the iambic pentameter or rhyme scheme of the
traditional English sonnet—but I do observe, with fair consistency, what
I like to call the "deep structure" of the English form, which is that of
argument. The first four lines set forth a statement, a "THIS." The next
four elaborate on that, by saying "AND THIS." Then comes the volta, the turn,
when in the third quatrain a challenge arises: "BUT." Finally, the couplet
finishes off the argument, in what might be a synthesis, or a new challenge:
"MOREOVER." At which point the door of the room that is the sonnet is either
slammed shut with a "So there!" or flung wide: "Let's go!"
- Return to the Top of the Page
- Go to the Poet's Workshop
Archive ->
|
