A sonnet must be a real challenge. I haven’t tried it, most of my poems got inspiration from my friends here in Triond. But, I did understand the rules of Haiku. Thanks for sharing this lovely poem of yours.

Very good.

Excellent as usual! I admire your talent.
Best wishes,
François

Good work, Michelle. I used to write sonnets years ago (my wife has some of my love sonnets hidden away), but I haven’t tried one in ages. You’ve inspired me to give it a whack again!

very nice…i love to rhyme,i need to do more free verse…u did this well!

I’m glad for you that you can deal with all the rules. It takes a lot of talent to do it.

Grant

What a way to turn a negative into a positive M, lol… cool, but now we know you know, fear not! Yes? ~T

Thanks.. all of you.

I admire all of you.

John, I can’t wait to read it!

RJ, you can do it if you work hard enough, after awhile it almost pours from you.

Tony, I have no fear! Many moons ago(if you’ll pardon the cliche… lol), this was my story, but I was recently inspired to write this by someone else that was experiencing the same challenge. I hope it helps anyone who may be experiencing the same.

-M

Keep strong, Michele. You’re doing really good. God bless your soul.If you believe than you can do anything.

Excellent piece, Michele.
May I be cheeky and make a suggestion?
The first and third lines of the third stanza are in trochees rather than iambs; this throws the rhythm.
You can regain the rhythm by adding an unstressed syllable to the beginning of each of these two lines as follows:

But how am I to write a proper sonnet,
and
That imag’ry, with frills and lace upon it,

I know this means those two lines have 11 syllables but as the final syllable is unstresed it’s within the ambit of sonnet definition and there are plenty of precedents.

On the other hand, since you intend it to be humorous perhaps it’s a deliberate ploy to highlight the problem!

Best wishes

JoWo

Jowo,

Yes, that is one of the problems people have when trying to read sonnets. It’s not the rhythm that’s the problem per se, but rather the assonance of the words in iambic pentameter. This is purely poking fun at the difficulty in maintaining the assonance. taDUM taDUM taDUM taDUM taDUM.

I’m also trying to show that it’s great to learn and practice the rules, but still ok to break them for the sake of art. I love to do this with a sonnet because it accentuates the volta and makes the 3rd stanza sound like the chorus of a song as well as providing a humourous effect.

Another way to write it would be:

Now I could write a proper sonnet true,
If I could hear the rhythm in my head.
Then paint it all with frills and lace for you,
It’s haunting me, but still the meter’s dead.

Not so effective, but proper.

-M

Really cute! Writing poems was never my thing! I leave it all to experts like you!