Hi,
This is a contest for those poets who do not write sonnets in iambic pentameter or any set meter.
1, Any subject
2. standard rules
3. pic is just decoration
This is a contest for those poets who do not write sonnets in iambic pentameter or any set meter.
1, Any subject
2. standard rules
3. pic is just decoration
Contest is Over
- Contest was judged on February 20, 2008
- Rewards: Gold: 300, Silver: 100, Bronze: 50
- Final notes: Hi, the quality is very high in this contest and judging it was not an easy task, for me the three winners all deserve gold, so do quite a few others entered here, sadly only 3 prizes, be proud poets, hope to see you all in the next contest,God bless, Di
Contest Winners
-
I watched them whirl—an indeterminate rout— Beyond the lintel, flared feathers flashing• Commented on by judge. [remove]
- Error: Unable to find finalist item 3879213, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
Gold trophy winner
Bronze trophy winner
Entries [8]
1 - 8 of 8
-
Masterblaster's perfect rhyme and form Shows that's she's a poet rich and warm• Commented on by judge.
-
When chilled clouds weep frozen tears
and drop them into silence• Commented on by judge. -
A chance meeting, lifelong friendhip, and more.
Called by the whispers of spirit's bidding.by PerVirtuous 18 lines, 11 comments, on Feb 7 3:49 PM 2008. In Spiritual• Commented on by judge.
Add a comment
Comments
1 - 12 of 12
-
Isn't the point of a sonnet to be in iambic Pentameter or some sort of meter?
-
-
For me a sonnet is a 14 line poem in (approximately) decasyllable that has an organised rhyme structure.
But then there are unrhymed sonnets, in iambic pentameter... -
-
ah
-
-
No.
Most of the great sonnet writers did not stick to just iambic pentameter. That was something academics made up later. Walter de la Mare PROVED that you don't have to write sonnets in iambic pentameter, as did Shakespeare and many others. Here's Walter de la Mare's sonnet, Silver:
Silver by Walter de la Mare
Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws and a silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.
and here's what Micol said about it.
"One of my professors, several centuries ago at least, gave a lecture one day arguing that almost all iambic pentametric lines in English can be legitimately read in a floating-four-stress, regardless of additional unstressed syllables. It was, he said, a holdover from the Anglo-Saxon alliterative four-stress line.
I can't guarantee that last, but he's right about the former. Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 works just as well read "that TIME of YEAR thou may'st in ME beHOLD," etc., as it does the metronomic "that TIME of YEAR thou MAYST in ME beHOLD."
De la Mare's first line might then read "SLOWly, SIently, NOW the MOON."
I have a book called METER IN ENGLISH (sorry, can't remember the author), in which a dozen or so poet/critics, all well respected, were asked to scan five or six lines by Frost. Not two of them agreed. Most didn't even agree on the number of stresses in each line. But all argued vehemently that the passage was definitely metrical.
Makes for a lot of interesting gamesmanship."
and here's the Vallance Review on sonnets, which states the same thing:
http://vallancereviewcanada.homestead.com/vr62summer2007.html
Gerald Manley Hopkins wrote many sonnets without using iambic pentameter at all, and a lot of other good sonneteers also wrote sonnets that were not iambic pentameter. Gerald Manley Hopkins also wrote mostly religious poems, in case you are interested in checking out his sonnets.
-
-
BUT
Even your thing proves it does have a set meter though, and thus making that your "or any set meter" half inaccurate for what is a sonnet without meter? -
-
I didn't say ...
no meter, I said not necessarily iambic pentameter. There's a difference.
-
-
-
-
can I give you one of my triplet or rubaiyat sonnets?
-
Oh, you rock. I hate iambic pentameter with a passion.
*madly rushes off to sonnet* -
-
Funny you mention ...
hating iambic pentameter. I wrote a poem on that called "The Slimey Grip of Iambic Pentameter". -
Iambs aren't so bad when you realise they are not hard and fast. English does not have two levels of stress. The point with any metrical poetry is to get a beat going. The easy way to do that is with heavily accented syllables
so BEAT the DRUM as HARD as THIS each TIME
But if you can read
the sun was shining softly on my love
is just as metrical but not tick-tock
And once you have a beat going you can play with it at will. The key isn't the ability to count up to ten, but to listen to what sounds good. -
-
I aggree with all of you
..I like what sounds good...
metrical with a beat is good , non metrical with a beat is good too, with a rhyme, sometimes iambics force the stress and unstressed words and the poem just sucks or is so calculated as to be mathematical and not charming
...only my point of view..that could change with time .. something perfect will always be elusive..
something difficult will always be intrusive.
-
-
-
Thank you.
It's even rarer for me to place as a finalist with rhyme than it is for me to write it. When I do, I wear off fingerprints counting slbs. It's really fun writing for the ear, as opposed to writing for a "formula".
This one meant alot.
Adding your comment:
1 - 12 of 12
