Why are sonnets so popular?

I think it’s the rhyme scheme—the waterfall of rhyming sounds, where not only do the specific rhymes change, but (while maintaining a coherent pattern) the scheme itself evolves…the “cascade” of rhymes is nearly irresistably lovely.

For example, in perhaps the simplest of the recognised sonnet-forms. the English or Shakespearean ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, the scheme changes from ballad quatrain ABAB to the concluding couplet—and that’s key to the charm. Even more evolved is the Italian which changes from Petrarchian stanza ABBA to an almost infinitely varied sestet arrangement. Most clever perhaps is the Spenserian ABAB BCBC CDCD EE which proceeds from ballad quatrain ABAB, to interlocked Italian quatrains BABBCBCCDC, to another ballad quatrain CDCD and concludes with a couplet!!!

If you wanted to write a rhyming poem about a lyric epiphany experienced while watching a deer you have several choices:

1.) You could rhyme inconsistently like…say Eliot. Probably not a choice for most formalists.

2.) You could rhyme in couplets or triplets. (Well…you could.)

3.) You could employ one of the quatrain stanzas—ABAB, ABBA or xAxA. Better than couplets, anyway.

4.) You could employ one of the fairly limited number of set-forms commonly used in English-language poetry. e.g.: a villanelle…but so awkward—with limited rhyme-sounds, numerous repetitions and really not much space.

5.) By now, you probably want to write a sonnet!

6.) There is an alternative. Looking at Tim Steele’s web-page I found seven poems—one Blank Verse, one in couplets, one in ABAB stanza, and four in various more complex rhyme schemes: ABBACCA, ABBACBC, ABABCBBC, ABABCDBD

Of course, each of Steele’s poems employs it’s chosen 7 or 8-line rhyme-scheme for several stanza…but a brief poem about watching deer could fit comfortably in 7 or 8 lines, two repetitions of such a stanza scheme could serve as an elegant poem of 14 or 16 lines without begging to be compared to Keats and Milton, and it wouldn’t be difficult to compose a slightly longer scheme with much the same logical charm. (The first twelve lines of the Spenserian look attractive to me ABABBCBCCDCD— minus the couplet your poem won’t scream SONNET!)

This looks like the better way to describe the deer…and you still get that waterfall of rhyme!

Mr Gwynn, what are your thoughts about complex rhyme-schemes that could serve as alternatives to sonnets. I must confess, I've never composed a brief poem this way...I always wrote a sonnet, instead!




[This message has been edited by MacArthur (edited July 26, 2001).]

>>Mr Gwynn, what are your thoughts about complex rhyme-schemes that could serve as alternatives to sonnets. I must confess, I've never composed a brief poem this way...I always wrote a sonnet, instead!


You can't get much more complex than Shelley's "Ozymandias," which has to rate as one of the great sonnets in English. I have written sonnets of all types, including the rare Spenserian, and don't really have a preference. I find the closing couplet in the English sonnet a bit of a problem in that it tends to tie up things too patly, and the octave of the Italian has long been a problem (look at the 8th line of Longfellow's great "The Cross of Snow" for an example). Most of my sonnets have been hybrids of one type or another. One's choice of rhyme scheme should probably be dictated by the direction a particular poem is taking, not by following a pre-determined scheme. That said, I had to use the English pattern in the following, for obvious reasons.

Shakespearean Sonnet

With a first line taken from the tv listings

A man is haunted by his father’s ghost.
A boy and girl love while their families fight.
A Scottish king is murdered by his host.
Two couples get lost on a summer night.
A hunchback murders all who block his way.
A ruler’s rivals plot against his life.
A fat man and a prince make rebels pay.
A noble Moor has doubts about his wife.
An English king decides to conquer France.
A duke learns that his best friend is a she.
A forest sets the scene for this romance.
An old man and his daughters disagree.
A Roman leader makes a big mistake.
A sexy queen is bitten by a snake.

Thanks for posting "Shakespearian Sonnet" -- delightful! I love how you get away with 14 end-stopped lines in a row (by means of the reference to TV-listings).