Poetic forms can be fun.
I say this as a person who has, in the past, been intimidated by poetic forms. (“Oh, it’s a sonnet, is it? and that’s a villanelle, is it? How nice for you. Pretentious gits. [grumble]”)
I understand resisting the idea of putting in work just to be entertained by a piece of writing. Just entertain me already! But then I learned that playing with forms is fun – both as a writer and as a reader.
The breakthrough for me was in coming to understand that a poetic form is essentially a game. A language game. And games can be fun.
Take the Shakespearean sonnet. What you get in this form (language game) is a set of expectations about how it looks and behaves:
- You’d expect to see 14 lines.
- And you’d expect a structure that has three quatrains (that’s three stanzas of 4 lines each, total of 12 lines) plus a rhyming couplet (two lines, added to the previous twelve, makes 14).
- And you’d expect the rhyme scheme to go ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG.
- And then you’d expect an emotional or intellectual change or reversal on the ninth line or maybe saved up for the eleventh line.
- 10 syllables per line, usually accented like “duh-DAH, duh-DAH, duh-DAH, duh-DAH, duh-DAH.”
You can see it all play out in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29:
| Line | Rhyme |
|---|---|
| WHEN in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes | A |
| I all alone beweep my outcast state, | B |
| And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, | A |
| And look upon myself, and curse my fate, | B |
| Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, | C |
| Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d, | D |
| Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope, | C |
| With what I most enjoy contented least; | D |
| Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, | E (and here's the CHANGE, line 9, right on time! That "Yet" is the clue.) |
| Haply I think on thee,—and then my state, | F |
| Like to the lark at break of day arising | E |
| From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate; | F |
| For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings | G |
| That then I scorn to change my state with kings. | G |
Take a look at Sonnet 29 in action:
I like that! When you are listening, you’re not counting rhymes or syllables. It just works. There’s feeling.
(BTW, did you notice that “possess’d” and “least” don’t quite rhyme? In Shakespeare’s time the words may have rhymed – scroll to video at bottom if curious about Shakespearean pronunciation).
As a writer, it’s fun to have a game to play. Shakespearean sonnets are a challenge. You can follow all the conventions and write a TERRIBLE poem. I know, because I have written some stinkers. BUT, and this is key, they are fun to work on, even if they suck. They are a bit like Sudoku meets the crossword puzzle meets your most personal diary. When they work, even a little, you feel like Tarzan.
As a reader, if you saw something claiming to be a Shakespearean sonnet with only 13 instead of 14 lines, you might ask:
- Is the poet commenting on the form?
- Is there an implied, unspoken line that we are meant to fill in with our imaginations?
- Did the poet just screw up, forget a line and make a failed sonnet?
Knowing something about the game the poet is playing helps you enjoy how they are either following, bending, or breaking the rules. You get to decide if they are doing so successfully. (There is no Rule Police.)
It’s like baseball. (I know… everything is like baseball.) If you know how hard it is to throw a ball 60 feet to hit a postage stamp sized target and then get to witness a no-hitter then your jaw can drop appropriately. If you know the rules of the game, you can enjoy the game even when your team loses. And that’s what reading a bad poem can be like sometimes. The poet is the home team. And sometimes the home team loses – wow, was that villanelle ever a laugher, better luck next time!
(Want to read one of my sonnets? There's one called “LEGO Fever” and it’s in my new book, Now We Are Seven.)
Give a language game a try today!
P.S. here is that pronunciation video:
AND -- BONUS!! Here is Sonnet 29 again, our old friend, recited by Ben Crystal in the way it may have sounded back in the day. (Notice that "possess'd" and "least" do rhyme this way.)
Happy reading! Happy writing!
If you have a sonnet to share, please link in comments!