Friday, November 20, 2009

Iambic Pentameter - Ten syllable per line

I'm on a short fun poetry workshop, just six week and we are halfway through them.
Our homework this week is to write a sonnet. We were given a handout and the teacher began by saying  "Iambic Pentameter - Ten Syllables per Line" - for anyone who has never had it taught to them - me included - I immediately piped up with "EH!!!!!!!!" oh dear why can I never wait for the teacher to finish before butting in with my quips
A sonnet (as I understand from the lesson)
  • usually a love song/poem but not necessarily nowadays.
  • 14 lines long
  • written in 4 strata (verses) of 4,4,4 and 2 lines per strata
  • the lines could be labelled (in your mind) a b a b  c d c d  e f e f  g g
  • the 'a's should rhyme the b's should rhyme and so on
  • each line must have ten syllables in it
I know I have lost half of you now but perhaps this will be easier to understand

My Sonnet (tongue in cheek) My homework

Write a verse, a sonnet in fourteen lines;
label them a b, a b and so on,
where all the a's and the b's must rhyme;
each one should be just ten syllables long.

Can I do it or will I fail this course?
flitting across the page a butterfly,
disintegrate as line on line is false
and does not go and does not satisfy?

Dear pen, dear note book, dear computer page
will you allow me access to this way
of writing easily, and not with rage,
of so expressing what I need to say?

I have done it, but do I like it thus?
An exercise of given taste, a must

I struggled with that for ages in bed last night so had to get it down on the computer as quickly as possible this morning, to get it off my mind so that hopefully tonight I will be able to fall asleep when I go to bed.

I do love certain phrases that trip off the tongue with delight. One such phrase is the line I wrote back at the beginning and the title of this post
Iambic Pentameter - Ten syllable per line
How grand that sounds, how wonderfully sublime
Inspiring me to want to write in rhyme
But not conform to beating out the time

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Iambic!!

Rachel said...

Love it. Shakespeare eat your heart out.

Barbara said...

well done with the sonnet. Very difficult. No wonder it kept you awake.

Summer Sunflower said...

Goodness me Mary, I am still lost, but well done on your sonnet!

Lynne said...

Blimey Mary you do keep your brain ticking over , too hard for me LOL but love the lambic word LOL!!

Anonymous said...

nice post. thanks.

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