Italian Sonnet and something to try

Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,
  And many goodly state and kingdoms seen: 
                      (Keats - On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer)

Apologies for not checking in sooner, life has been rather busy of late.

I did no writing in Half Term and seem to be finding lots of reasons why I haven't the time to write poetry.  However, last weeks class was a good one.  There were only five of us which might actually work better.  We had one poem from a student to workshop and then looked at Sonnets again.  This time we studied the Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet and then work-shopped two, a Keats and one by Seamus Heaney  to see what they did with the form.  Petrarchan sonnets have 14 lines with a rhyming pattern of abba,abba,cdecde (or the last 6 lines could be cdedcc or cdeced or cdcdcd).  The poets had different ways of writing and the rhyming was....well, you had to look for it at times with lots of nearish rhymes, some barely in Heaney's case.

Our tutor then set us an exercise to write a sonnet .  We each had to write two nouns (naming words) on a piece of paper and pass it to our right.  Then we had to write a question against one of the words which we would use to sum up in the last three lines.  Then using our words we had to write a sonnet with 7 lines, four and then a turn in the last three lines.  We had about 15 minutes to write and it was a struggle for us!  Our tutor said it was a difficult exercise but we didn't have to rhyme or have set length of lines.  We all managed to produce something though I don't think I really got writing until the last five minutes!  My words were mixing desk and table and this is what I wrote:

Here the sounds are made,
mixed at this desk
brought together, blended
in a machine, a box of songs.

But how real are the sounds?
Does this table talk?
What colours the melody?

My tutor thought it was great!  Looking at the piece now I'd edit the second line and say 'at this mixing desk' to keep true to the words I received, but I was editing to the very last minute at the time!

Try it yourself.  Here are your two words:    book, umbrella.  Add your question to one of the words and away your go!

Roses are red.....

It's hearts and flowers day - a great day to be in love.  For those without without a partner it can be a very depressing Valentine's Day (I remember it well!)


For the origins of this lovey, dovey day click here.


Anyone for a love poem?

"The Good-Morrow" by John Donne

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the seven sleepers' den?
'Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an every where.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;

If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

A Sonnet...by any other name?

We looked at different forms of Sonnets at poetry class and then looked at two - a Keats and a modern sonnet  to compare and decide whether each had kept to the formula.  We decided that Keats just about did (he had one dubious rhyme) and that the modern one also did even though it was set out differently, however it begged the question - when is a Sonnet not a Sonnet?  It seems poets go to great lengths to take the formula apart so that it can be difficult to tell and perhaps the only thing left is that it has 14 lines (for a Shakespearean Sonnet).  I have often come across judges who say 'this is a Sonnet' and I'm thinking "eh? How come?"  I can't be bothered to analyse the form that far, I just like a poem or I don't.  Maybe that's where I go wrong.  I guess it's like art once you have learned how to paint you can then do something a child could do!  Is that a bit harsh?  I think I need to learn more so I can then say of mine, "well of course it's a Sonnet, it has a turn and it sort of rhymes"!!  Thoughts anyone?

For everything Sonnet click here.

Echoes and ideas

I am somewhat still glowing after my poem was work-shopped on Thursday.  Everyone really like it and my tutor described it as Bronte style known as pathetic fallacy, meaning the echo of landscape and weather that echo the emotions of a person.  In  my case it was the repairing of a house echoing the emotions of the couple who live there.  My tutor even asked me if I would submitting it somewhere.  Another student said the poem reminded her of the style of writing of poet Paula Fox, not someone I am familiar with and from my searching online she seemed to write more books than anything.  Anyway, this praise certainly cancelled out the negative of  receiving notifications that I had not won, nor were short listed in the two recent competitions I entered.

I've also done a little writing, pose poetry mainly, ideas that came to me when I was in bed (on one of those nights when getting back to sleep seemed impossible!)  I wrote four draft poems.  They are still in my notebook and haven't yet made it to computer.  They are all about childhood (not necessarily mine!).  I seem to have been writing a few poems based on childhood in the last few months and I already have a title in my head for a collection, should I ever get that far!