VOTE - Sonnet Bake-off
 

From today (Wednesday, April 20) to Thursday, April 21, 9 p.m. EDT, please cast your votes for your top 3 sonnets in this year`s bake-off.

As usual, 3 points will be accorded for a number 1 choice, 2 points for a number 2 choice, and 1 point for third choice.

Please feel free to add some final commentary.

The results will be posted on Friday, April 22, along with Mr. Gwynn`s choices and a few words from your host.

Thanks for hosting this, Catherine!

Overall I think this year was a little weak compared to prior Sonnet Bakeoffs. And there were an awful lot of hyphenated adjectives throughout this year's fare -- how odd!

In any event, my three selections are (in order):

1. Sonnet 4 ("Dressing For You")
2. Sonnet 1 ("Matriarch")
3. Sonnet 13 ("The Dead King's Daughter Weds His Conqueror")

Honorable mention (for what it's worth) for "Stuffed". It was a true toss up for my third choice.

Thank you, Catherine, for hosting this. And thanks to R. S. Gwynn!

1. Sonnet 3.
2. Sonnet 4.
3. Sonnet 1.

Thank you, Catherine and thank you Mr. Gwynn, and thank you to all the sonnet writers.
This is the first Sonnet-Bake-Off in my time on the sphere, and there are some gems. My favorite is 'Stuffed'. I remember it from when it was workshopped. The bear in the Christmas apple tree, festooned with red apples and tinsel leaves creates a beautiful, colorful, festive picture in my mind. It is happy-making.
"The Dead King's Daughter Weds His Conqueror" also paints a vivid picture. A tapestry with content. It is beautiful, harsh and pragmatic.
"Surabaya" is clever. I like the examples chosen, they are anything but random.
So I vote for:

First: Sonnet # 10, Stuffed
Second: Sonnet # 13, The Dead King's Daughter Weds his Conqueror
Third: Sonnet # 8: Surabaya

If I understand this correctly, we get to see another bunch that didn't quite make the cut. That will be interesting.

Meanwhile:

1) 3
2) 13
3) 1

I guess my choice of winner is based on the fact that the poet adhered to the form, but twisted it to her own ends.

Philip

Thank you, Catherine, for doing a very fine job at hosting the Bake-off,
and thank you, R.S. Gwynn, for being our Distinguished Guest. And of course,
huge thanks to both of you for providing thoughtful and interesting comments.
I loved reading the sonnets. Thanks to all the poets, and to those who took part in the discussions.


1. Sonnet 8 (Surabaya)
2. Sonnet 3 (I Need Men)
3. Sonnet 6 (Differing Visions)
.

1. I Need Men
2. Stuffed
3. God May Forgive You

Sorry, Philip, You won't get to see the poems, only the titles and names of the 13 honorable mentions.

1. #1 (Matriarch)-- killer last line, and just good all around

2. #7 (Smitten)-- I know others had issues with the rhyme and meter, but someone needs to speak up for it, and this one really sparked (!) my imagination. I like the title's double meaning, too....

3. # 3 (I Need Men)-- love the turn.

Loved 13 too, but 3 stands better on its own.

3
1
4

Thanks!

1 - #1
2 - #8
3 - #3

1 #2, "The Way it Ended", for terse and poignant closing lines that touch real life situations*;

2 #3, "I Need Men", for grabbing me at the entrance and not letting go; and

3 #7, "Smitten", for, despite some flaws, throwing caution to the winds of a strong and accessible metaphor.

John

*PS My wife holds weekly come-one, come-all music sessions at our house. One man takes his wife, who has Alzheimer's. She has lost almost all communication ability, but music still perks her up. She plays percussion and smiles. This is a late chapter in his campaign to do everything in his power to "keep her in their game", and I can't imagine a better way of expressing it. In a real sense for them, because of Alzheimer's, "old age never came".

1--Surabaya (8)
2--Differing Visions (6)
3--I Need Men (3)

1. #3
2. #8
3. #4


This has been a lot of fun. I have enjoyed reading all the poems here and want to congratulate all who made it in. To Catherine and Mr. Gwynn - thank you.

First: Sonnet #10, Stuffed
This bear is unforgettable.

Second: Sonnet #8, Surabaya
The inventiveness of this one made me read again and again.

Third: Sonnet #7, Smitten
This one pulled me in and pulled me back.

Thank you to all the contributors and the commentators. This bake-off is an annual treasure. Thanks to all!

I did not enter this year, and I haven't had time to comment in the threads, but I have enjoyed reading the sonnets and Sam and Cathy's comments. My votes:

1. I Need Men
2. God May Forgive You
3. Matriarch

David R.

My favorites were

A Bird's Eye View
Differing Visions
Matriarch

Thanks to Catherine for her selections and insights (and efforts in organizing this!), and Sam for all his comments and reactions to the poems.

And a special thanks to Tim Murphy, who I've not seen at this year's bake-off, but who founded the event, and whose passion for poetry sustained it over many years.

Best, Bruce

All that fall
 

1.#4
2.#3
3.#1

Steve.

And my choices are:
First - 3
Second - 8
Third - 10
And may the best sonnet win.
Siham

1. I Need Men #3
2. Surabaya #8
3. Smitten #7 (which could have been #1 Matriarch but for the fact that rule-morphing needs support at all times!)

Thanks, Cathy & Sam.

Nemo

I've been traveling the past week-plus so haven't had time or means to participate much in this event, but I've read all the poems enough to know that I go with

3
8
1

in that order.

Thanks, Cathy and Sam, for mc'ing & selecting & commenting.

I think I hate this voting stage. These decisions are impossible.

For entirely subjective reasons, I need simplicity lately, and I got the purest and most immediate pleasure from sonnet 5. I also see all the strengths of sonnets 1 and 2, but lately I've read (and written) a surfeit of poems about age and death and something in my brain backs away.

So in the end I'm going with

sonnet 8 for first place,
sonnet 3 for second, and
sonnet 9 for third

Thanks, Cathy, for all your work, and Sam, for your comments.

Thanks, Cathy and Sam for your devotion to duty in the face of peril.
My choices:

9: Bird's Eye View
10: Stuffed
2: The Way It Ended

Peter

Thank you, Cathy, Sam, and all the poets. This has been great fun. And what a wonderful exercise in daily close reading--I could practically hear my brain cells at work.

I found the voting part very difficult, because several of these sonnets won my admiration but faltered in small yet crucial ways. (And I spent some time considering whether my idea of "crucial" was in fact "petty" . . .) I have a very warm spot in my heart for both #8 and #9, but my votes are:

#1. Sonnet #4, Dressing for You
#2. Sonnet #5, God May Forgive You
#3. Sonnet #3, I Need Men

Best,
Jean

8,
7,
10

Cathy and Sam, thanks for a fine job.

1. #8 - Surabaya
2. #3 - I Need Men
3. #4 - Dressing for You

Thank you, Catherine. Thank you, Mr. Gwynn.

Sonnets 8,7,2

Matriarch
The Way It Ended
Birds Eye View

I didn't find a perfect sonnet in the batch, but I found some I enjoyed very much, some that seemed to successully match the form to the content, and others I couldn't work hard enough to research and translate, though I'm sure they might have repaid the effort. I admire the patience and work you must have put into the selection, Cathy, especially with 68 sonnets to plough through. Thanks to you for screening and to Sam for judging.

In the end I went with what I considered the most successful sonnets, since the contest was for sonnets. I would have chosen Differing Visions but couldn't get past the choppy lines and the implausibility of a scenario in which a mother could miss the fact of her son's colorblindness until he was 5. She should have known it when he was 2.

Carol

8
3
1

Frank

editing in to say thanks to Cathy and Sam for doing this

1. #3: "I Need Men"

2. #8: "Surabaya"

3. #1 "Matriarch"

Up to and including post #30, here's how the voting stands so far:

Sonnet 1: 21
Sonnet 2: 7
Sonnet 3: 45
Sonnet 4: 14
Sonnets 5 & 6: 5 each
Sonnet 6: 5
Sonnet 7: 9
Sonnet 8: 36
Sonnet 9: 8
Sonnet 10: 12
Sonnets 11 & 12: 0
Sonnet 13: 6

So for now, "I Need Men" is in first place, "Surabaya" is in second place, and "Matriarch" is in third.

The voting closes tonight at 9 p.m. EDT.

Thanks!

5: 1
12: 2
11:3

Hooray! I didn't miss the voting this year, for a change!

1--#8 Surabaya
2--#5 May God Forgive You
3--#6 Differing Visions

And let me tell you, the competition for that third spot was pretty stiff! Lots of stuff I admired in this year's crop of sonnets. Thanks for all the good conversation.

Thanks for organising this, both. Sorry I haven't commented on them all. Mostly this was because I had nothing to add to what had already been said. And life intervened somewhat. But I have read and considered, and my choices are:

1 - 6
2 - 5
3 - 8

Cathy, Sam

Thanks for this.

Sonnet 3 - Yay!!!!!!

Philip

Looking at the point spread, my only worry is that 11-13 didn't get enough reading time before voting started...

I wonder if in future years it would be a good idea to have an extra day between the posting of the final sonnets and the voting? Just a thought.

Synopsis for Eat, Pray, Love

Surabaya:
Smitten,
Stuffed.

In that order. Obviously, sonnets should start with the letter S.

Sorry. Double post.

Shaun,

I think that there was ample time to read all the sonnets and to comment on them before voting. Most sonnets receive their comments on the day they were posted. People have had two days to read sonnets 11, 12 and 13 and vote for them if they feel they are their 3 favorites. In fact, you voted for sonnet #13.

It's true that I did vote for #13, though I've also had a fair amount of spare time lately and have been watching Eratosphere quite closely.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm fine with how it is, and I think you have done a fantastic job with it...especially with pairings, timely early-morning postings of poems etc.

I guess I'm just a bit surprised to see no votes for a couple of the later poems. They're not ones I would vote for, to be sure, but given the subjective nature of poetry I would have thought that some among the forty or fifty regular readers of these poems would have given those orphans a bit of poetic love...