Monday Poetry Stretch - Sonnet (Italian Form)

Gulp. Yes, you read that right. Sonnet.

I did this really crazy thing last week. When Liz Garton Scanlon wrote to ask if I wanted to participate in writing a crown sonnet with a group of Poetry Friday bloggers, I said YES! I am thrilled (and more than a bit intimated) about joining these amazing writers for this project.

• TadMack of Finding Wonderland
• Kelly Fineman of Writing and Ruminating
• Sara Lewis Holmes of Read*Write*Believe
• Cloudscome of a wrung sponge
• Laurie Purdie Salas

Now that I'm committed, I need to practice. So, this week's stretch takes the form of the sonnet. Since we will be using the Italian form for our crown sonnet, that's the form I propose we stretch with.

Here are the basic guidelines to follow.

• A sonnet is composed of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter.
• The Italian sonnet is divided into an octave (8 lines), followed by a sestet (6 lines).
• The rhyme pattern for the octave is a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a. For the sestet the pattern can be c-d-e-c-d-e or c-d-c-c-d-c.

You can read more on sonnets in this great post by Kelly Fineman.

If you could see me now, you'd see a serious "deer in the headlights" look on my face. Are you with me? What kind of sonnet will you write? Give it a whirl and then leave me a comment about your poem. Later this week I'll post the results.