Sonnets

I have a very dif­fi­cult time writ­ing son­nets. This would prob­a­bly explain why I have only writ­ten two. I don’t have much prob­lem with meter or rhyme, but its that damn iambic that sticks me each time. I’d be much more com­pe­tent writ­ing in dactylic pen­tame­ter or hexa­m­e­ter. I think I tend to speak in dactyls. I always have trou­ble with con­tent. My sec­ond son­net [found below some­where] was bitchin’ in its ini­tial free verse form. Per­haps the way I go about writ­ing them is my prob­lem. Once I get the idea I jot down the main theme, using the right words for what I’m think­ing of. My prob­lem lies in exe­cu­tion, because most of those words won’t work in iambic pen­tame­ter. I also write my lines back­wards start­ing with the fifth foot [I’m con­fi­dent this has some­thing to do with the dactyl thinger].

Long before I am fin­ished with the damn thing I can­not tell whether a line is cor­rect iambic pen­tame­ter or not. I’m just hap­py if it has ten syl­la­bles. I think I’ll write ten syl­la­ble rhyming son­nets for a while and then try to ease myself into some sort of meter, most like­ly dactylic some­thingerother. The good thing about writ­ing son­nets is that you must make each word count. I still have too many chea­p­os in there, although some­times a prop­er­ly placed ‘this’ or ‘that’ can rock the par­ty.

Hap­py Hour Son­net.

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