We are all poets and we know what a sonnet is. Don’t we?
Everyone knows that a sonnet rhymes, and there are rhyme schemes.
Everyone knows that a sonnet is written in meter. More specifically iambic pentameter.
A sonnet has fourteen lines, and a sonnet has something called a volta too. We all know that.
But if I mention sonnets we shall not forget Pablo Neruda.
Love sonnet XVII
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
Notice that it has:
No rhyme scheme
No meter (or as I prefer to say – a free meter)
But it has 14 lines, and a volta when you go from the two quatrain into the the concluding tercets.
This is consistent with an Italian (or Petrarchan sonnet).
Today I want you to write a free verse sonnet in the same style. State your problem in the first two quatrain (pack it with metaphors, with mystery and imagery). Then apply it for real in the concluding part that resolves the poem, and for those of you who cannot live without rhyme and meter write a Petrarchan sonnet.
Publish the sonnet to your blog and link up to Mr Linky below.
Leave a comment with me (the bartender), it’s always a pleasure to hear about what you guys are up to.
Then hit the trail, read and learn. Enjoy all the poetry and let yourself be inspired to the the next level next time. Maybe even write a second entry. But most of all:
Have fun!
dVerse 
Good evening friends… I hope that you will enjoy to write some 14 lines with me tonight… I tried my best to do it… but it’s not easy when dealing with a Nobel prize winner.
Good evening, Bjorn! It’s lovely to see you back behind the bar with a challenging prompt and a Nobel prize winner! I’m not sure if my sonnet meets all of the criteria but I tried! I’m looking froward to some interesting sonnets this evening.
I think learning from the masters is one way to improve your own… after all that is how the masters once did it… Neruda learning from Shakespeare… we learning from him
Been some time since I wrote a sonnet Bjorn ~ And Neruda is one of my favorite writers, so this prompt is irresistible ~ Thanks for hosting ~
Happy Thursday ~
I knew that you would love this prompt Grace… and what a wonderful sonnet you gave us.
Evening all. Love the prompt. Just off to play some music but posted my poem first. I’ll drop by later to read and comment.
I hope your music night will be perfect.
Great prompt. I went a little (a lot) wide of your guidelines; I love the modernist sonnets of Michael McClure, Wanda Coleman, and Ted Berrigan.
Great we want this to be wide…
this was quite difficult but hopefully it went okay. Now off to get a glass of wine…
Whine is perfect after sonnetry
I have been away for far too long…looking forward to reading again!
So nice to have you here Bryan,…. a long time it’s been, but I’ve been on hiatus too.
I for one have missed you Bryan. I hope it has been a good summer for you!
it’s been a good, but busy summer! I’m hoping once the kiddoes are back in school that I’ll have a bit more time to write/read poetry
I have enjoyed reading what you have posted and the bit on FB your wife posted about the visiting kids…Thank you for keeping my mood up, whether you knew it or not.
actually, that was my sister…and she had my kids over to her place. My wife, on the other hand, enjoyed a few days of quiet 🙂
Okay. Good to get that straight. But it looked like so much fun. Glad your wife got some rest! (and you too)
oh yes, fun was had by my sister and my boys…not sure how much fun my sister’s cats had though 🙂
The poor things will probably take some time to readjust! 🙂
Excellent prompt! I am still in the midst of canning tomatoes and freezing lovely summer corn. so I shall be a bit late for posting. the poetry of food being put away for the summer beckons.
Will it be tomato sonnets
Now that is a thought… 🙂
Great prompt, Bjorn. I’ve written Shakespearean sonnets, but this was new to me. I enjoyed it; thanks for hosting!
I think it helps to focus on something else than the rhymes … the sonnet is something so much more,
Good evening everyone. Not sure I did the sonnet write but I gave it a try.
Trying is excellent – that’s why we poetry
Good prompt, Bjorn. It inspired me to write a sonnet-adjacent poem, though not one that fits your prompt. Perhaps I’ll give it a shot later when my head isn’t quite the beehive it’s been these days.
Oh pls link up the poem Barry, i know you did a great one….
OK, but I warn you; it’s an experimental conversational style that’s probably not very good.
Not sure if it fits your prompt but it is a fourteen line, free meter and free verse poem with an octave-sestet similarity. But I enjoyed writing it to such a good prompt 🙂
Thank you Sumana… Sonnets can be quite free I think…
I loved writing my maiden Sonnet. Hope you like it!
Thanks for the great prompt. Have a wonderful weekend 🙂
I finally had time to write Bjorn. I hope I did it correctly.
What a fun prompt, Bjorn!
I don’t know if I succeeded or not but I know I’ll find out. It took me all day today working on my Lust/Love Sonnet that I did special artwork for. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I know I’ve been absent I took the summer off and although it’s not over with I’m starting to link again. It’s good to be back and I can’t wait to read everyone’s sonnet.
My bike riding has been excellent the weather has been a little cloudy (due to morning fog) but so good for riding! I am enjoying myself despite my amount of flat tires this summer. Lol!
Group hug!!
Hello, Bjorn. Thanks for enticing me back to participate in a dVerse prompt! I love Neruda, though I don’t think I have produced anything resembling his. I also love to try new ways of making sonnets, and a free verse sonnet seems like wonderful licence. 🙂
Sorry to be later but I have been busy watering.
Hi Bjorn, for some reason, my posts are not linking up to dVerse. Any suggestions?
I couldn’t find any poem on your blog… can you please direct me and I will fix the link
I wrote a sonnet for the Pablo Neruda prompt,
but it disappeared off my blog. I will see if I can find it elsewhere. Thanks, Bjorn.
This has been a busy week so I thought I might miss the prompt, but did just manage it.
Darn! Why did Mr. Linky expire so soon? I had a doozy and missed by 50 minutes. Why such a short cutoff date??
We always have 48 hours. On thursday we will have an Open Link… any poem welcome.
Hi. Thanks for the fast answer. I’ll try again Thurs. if I remember–a recent problem. Well, perhaps not so recent. I forget.
An extremely helpful post, thanks Rudberg!
My pleasure… If you are in writing mood, we have prompts three times per week. Check it out tonight when any one poem is welcome.
Hello, I hope I’m not too late. I have an exam coming up and was wondering if I could use this poem as an example for free verse, would this 100% fit in the criteria of being a free verse poem?
Hello… we do have prompts weekly, this particular one was a while ago, and is closed. Check out the schedule and you can see what can work for you… happy poeming
Dear sir …free verse is gud but as it is free from rhyme n metre ..only 14 lines composition can be called sonnet.
There may also exist another kind of verse different from blan verse or free verse . A verse that is free from metre or metrical structure of poetic lines but having rhyme scheme . In this case italian structure of sonnet (octave n sestet ) n shakesperen structure of sonnet ( 4 quatrains + rhymed couplet ) can be comppsed .
I have written many sonnets with no metre n rhyming scheme in both the structure form of petrarchan n shakesperean . In this case i found two out of three trtraditionally defined characteristics of sonnet. This verse that has rhyming with no metre exist in literature under any coined name or not sir?
What i have written in violates blank verse n free verse both. But it has tremendous structure form division of octave n srstet as well as three quatrain with one rhymed couplet.
In what category will such composotion fall ?
What kinf of verse will it be ?
Hoping to get your view sir.
Thannks