Sonnet

Write a sonnet about either romantic love or heartbreak.

Regardless of which option you choose, you should follow all the instructions below.

Use the same rhyme scheme Queneau used for his sonnet:

  • Stanza One: ABBA
  • Stanza Two: CDDC
  • Stanza Three: EFE
  • Stanza Four: GFG

You do not necessarily have to use the same stanza scheme.
You do not have to use traditional iambic pentameter.
Title your sonnet.
Have fun with funky, characterizing, figurative language.
Follow the words and rhymes and see if you can, along the way, discover new details.

SAMPLE SONNET

Glabrous of dial, a plait upon his bonnet,

This lousy lout—(how sad the neck he bore

And long also)—performed his usual chore:

The bus was full and he tried to get on it.

 

One came, a number ten—perhaps an S;

The platform joined to this plebeian carriage,

Crammed full of folk, allowed no easy passage;

Rich bastards lit cigars there, to impress.

 

The young giraffe described in my first strophe

Once he was on the bus began to curse an

Innocent chap—(he sought an easy trophy,

 

But got the worst of it); then found a seat

And sat in it. Time passed. Some wicked person,

Returning, found his buttons did not fit.