<u>A Sonnet for Melalope</u>
The reason I acted so crass
is I'm tired of jokes about ass.
The stuff that you throw up each day
is banal, with nothing to say
and meter that turns bad to verse -
an iambic insult - a curse!
Your problem right now is you laze,
you're wasting your midnights and days
on trading bad insults that show
no care to write poems that glow.
I hope you remember next time
the rhythm as well as the rhyme.
But an empty atonal boast?
I'll skewer you with my riposte!!
Mel - I'll be unrhymed again. The above is not great (too many end stops and not enough enjambment, even for light verse), but it is a sonnet and it is (more or less) iambic tetrameter. It does say something, it's not awful, it doesn't take up so much space that nothing else gets noticed, I did learn by writing it (never really worked in IT before), there are some word-play puns, and hopefully somebody will enjoy reading it. Let me challenge you to focus on semi-real writing instead of endless blather, and reply with a similar sonnet. You said some time back you wanted to learn metric verse - prove it. Use iambic tetrameter - it's good for light verse - ta-TUM ta-TUM ta-TUM ta-TUM. I used a jerky aabbccddeeff couplet rhyme scheme, but you can use that or the more classical abbacddceffegg or ababcdcdefefgg. Ideally (I didn't do it well in mine) a "turn" occurs after line 8, and the sonnet changes in tone or attitude, and the "envoi" in the last two lines has a little summary or kick in it (I did this part somewhat better) which leaves 'em laughing or crying, as the case may be. I dare ya.
Michael
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