This week's topic: Love.
It's almost Valentine's Day, so it's that time of year again when certain people try to outdo themselves to come up with nice gestures; and others lock themselves inside their rooms until three ghosts try to show them the true meaning of Valentine's. Or something like that. Anyhow, this week's topic encompasses everything to do with love. Love it, hate it, I don't mind, but write something involving some form of love or romance.
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This week's optional requirement: Write a sonnet.
Speaking of writing a love poem, or a hateful note to spurn a wannabe lover, sonnets are your way to go. If you had some lessons in English, no matter in what far-flung corner of the world you live, you probably encountered some of them when discussing Shakespeare, who is most closely associated with them.
Shakespearean Sonnets are the most commonly used form of sonnets (and sort of poetry in general) in the English language. Quite similar to the blank verse of last week, Shakespearean sonnets are made up of metric lines, in the form of iambic pentameters (five pairs of unstressed-stressed, da-DUM, syllables). However, in contrast to blank verse, Shakespearean sonnets have a strict form and rhyme scheme. Almost all of Shakespeare's sonnets consist of three quatrains (three, four-line stanzas, or paragraphs), and a final couplet (a two-line stanza). These are accompanied by an abab cdcd efef gg rhyming scheme, meaning the first and third lines rhyme, as do the second and fourth, and so on. An example of a first stanza for this exercise could be:
They say that heaven is a fairy tale (a)
And fate is but a fancy of the mind (b).
If so, I guess my mind is slightly frail, (a)
For at our meeting, all the stars aligned. (b)
Generally speaking, either the third stanza, or the final couplet, involves a kind of 'twist' (called a 'volta') in the story. This could for example mean that the mood or tone of the poem suddenly shifts, or your main character gets a change of heart or a new insight. Though, while it would be a nice thing to try, for the purpose of this exercise, I won't take this into account when handing out points.
While Shakespeare is best known for his sonnets, he certainly wasn't the first one to write them, nor is his form the only one you can find. Another widely used sonnet form is the (older) Petrarchan Sonnet. This form is quite similar to its Shakespearean counterpart in that it has 14 lines, and usually consists of iambic pentameters. However, the Petrarchan sonnet consists of one octet (an eight-line stanza), followed by one sixtet (a six-line stanza). The 'twist' in these sonnets takes place at the beginning of the sixtet.
Similarly to the Shakespearean ones, Petrarchan sonnets have a rhyming scheme, though the Petrarchan one begins with an abba abba scheme for the octet, and continues with something like cdc cdc or cde cde for the sixtet, though that last part tends to vary from poet to poet.
I won't be giving an example of a Petrarchan Sonnet, as this post is already getting quite long, but there are tons of them on the internet. And besides the two I've given here, there's also a great variety of sonnet forms to be found, which I would encourage you to take a look at if you have the time. Anyhow, all you need to remember for this week's exercise is:
Shakespearean Sonnet: Three quartets-one couplet, abab rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter
Petrarchan Sonnet: One octet-one sixtet, abba rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter
Have fun writing!
