Dear Mr. Wyatt: please cease and desist from using the term "sonnet" to describe your work. My sonnet has an octave and a sestet, whereas you turn the last two lines into a couplet. Also, you have 10 syllables in your line, whereas there should be 11. Sincerely, Petrarch.
Now, back to the 21st century. My brother worked on a cool scientific study once. He set up computer images morphing a cat into a dog over time. Some images had the eyes change first, others changed the ears or mouth first. Then volunteers for the study would watch the video and click a button when they thought the animal had changed. Turns out, there are certain visual cues that trigger people to see dog or cat (ears are a big one, for example).
A trimeter sonnet as defined in this thread has the "correct" number of lines and a valid sonnet-like rhyme scheme. On the other hand, it varies from standard IP in a big way. Here is a bit from Julie Stoner's post in the call for submissions:
"And whether the poet follows the standard recipes for rhyme and meter and placement of the volta, or rebels against them, the audience's familiarity with the sonnet tradition must somehow inform and improve our experience of the poem". Later, she says "No volta = no sonnet". This comment was then endorsed by Catherine Chandler. So you can reject the judge's views but it seems clear that in this venue, variations on the form will fly. Certainly, our familiarity with the tradition informs this discussion!
I don't agree that sonnets in IP necessarily carry more "gravitas". Trimeter can give a pithier reading, done right, while IP can easily sound glib. "Mower's Song" seems to straddle that line a bit. It's paced well, but I also find L2 confusing. Why does the boy (how old do we think he is, given he's "no longer cute"?) think that he once was N, who seems older? The boy is father to the man?
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