A Sonnet for Astoria
She’s a wild Turkey off to see the world
‘Cause there’s such a lot of world to seeShe’s looking dreamy, got her feathers furled
Sweet drifter, where she’s from is a mystery
Everyone loves her, she’s the new bird in town
Some call her Rosie, Some call her a turkey
Waldorf Astoria is where she was found
Reading the menu for breakfast at Tiffany’s
Up between the moon and New York City
She sleeps in trees, has everything she needs
Cops keep trying to capture her, a pity
She won’t be caught she flies away with ease
And kind folks follow to see she has cover
May she live long and find her true lover.
Challenge: Write a sonnet – or at least something “sonnet-shaped.” Think about the concept of the sonnet as a song, and let the format of a song inform your attempt. Be as strict or not strict as you want.
To refresh you on the “rules” of the traditional sonnet:
14 lines
10 syllables per line
Those syllables are divided into five iambic feet. (An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). The word “admit” is a good example. In pronouncing it, you put more stress on the “mit” than the “ad.”
Rhyme schemes vary, but the Shakespearean sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg (three quatrains followed by a concluding couplet).
Sonnets are often thought of as not just little songs, but little essays, with the first six-to-eight or so lines building up a problem, the next four-to-six discussing it, and the last two-to-four coming to a conclusion.
Given all these rules, it’s perhaps surprising that love poems make up quite a chunk of sonnets in English, but maybe that’s just because love poems make up quite a chunk of all poems in English?
To refresh you on the “rules” of the traditional sonnet:
14 lines
10 syllables per line
Those syllables are divided into five iambic feet. (An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). The word “admit” is a good example. In pronouncing it, you put more stress on the “mit” than the “ad.”
Rhyme schemes vary, but the Shakespearean sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg (three quatrains followed by a concluding couplet).
Sonnets are often thought of as not just little songs, but little essays, with the first six-to-eight or so lines building up a problem, the next four-to-six discussing it, and the last two-to-four coming to a conclusion.
Given all these rules, it’s perhaps surprising that love poems make up quite a chunk of sonnets in English, but maybe that’s just because love poems make up quite a chunk of all poems in English?
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