Yes, I do know what a sonnet is
There's been a wee bit o' controversy about one of the Spring Faire challenges at Sycophant Hex: the "sonnet" challenge. I wrote that challenge. It was critiqued by a few passionate poets (god love 'em!) who were offended that an entry didn't necessarily have to be written in iambic pentametre or have "abab" rhyme--so it effectively wasn't a sonnet. Though a few modern poets have experimented with 14-line poems that have other kinds of internal structure, yes, indeed--sonnets normally do have a highly structured rhythm/rhyme scheme. By making the requirements flexible, I was trying to invite new poets who hadn't written sonnets before to ease themselves into this highly constrained but (when done well) lovely form; I've sometimes invited my students to do just that when teaching poetry.
Clearly I didn't explain my rationale very well in the challenge. And unfortunately, a few folks out there in cyberspace may think SH admins don't know what a sonnet is.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
So here's a little something I wrote today and posted in another LJ. I reproduce it here to set the record straight:
----------
A war of words? How charming! And how right
For those so practiced in the thrust and cut
Of online repartee, to train their sight
On rhyme and rthymn aiming at the gut,
To breach the inner sanctum of our humour. But
You must not dare: no, do not even think--
Lest vengeful writers in your faces shut
The doors of online amity--to ink
Some slip-shod, modern verse, whose rhythms slink
Away from the iambic. Do not uncork
A rhyme that's less than perfectly in synch
Unless your favourite appetizer's spork.
Good gentle sonneteers, too sharp a pen
Will prick the hand that wields it. Yet again.
Clearly I didn't explain my rationale very well in the challenge. And unfortunately, a few folks out there in cyberspace may think SH admins don't know what a sonnet is.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
So here's a little something I wrote today and posted in another LJ. I reproduce it here to set the record straight:
----------
A war of words? How charming! And how right
For those so practiced in the thrust and cut
Of online repartee, to train their sight
On rhyme and rthymn aiming at the gut,
To breach the inner sanctum of our humour. But
You must not dare: no, do not even think--
Lest vengeful writers in your faces shut
The doors of online amity--to ink
Some slip-shod, modern verse, whose rhythms slink
Away from the iambic. Do not uncork
A rhyme that's less than perfectly in synch
Unless your favourite appetizer's spork.
Good gentle sonneteers, too sharp a pen
Will prick the hand that wields it. Yet again.