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Sonnet 1
I felt like trying something new today,
And so I put my pen upon a page
To mimic Shakespeare’s famous olden way—
A style which, I hear, was all the rage.
So here I am committing fourteen lines,
To document my thoughts dynamically:
I think it rather fine to write in fives,
Especially when rhymed iambically.
But now that I’m a couple quatrains in,
I’m sad to say it’s starting to get stale.
Alliteration, too, is wearing thin.
Perhaps it is my destiny to fail.
So I’ve decided, having thought upon it,
To nevermore attempt to write a sonnet.
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Saki is an artist based in both Vienna, Austria and San Diego, California. After getting a master’s degree in Genetics and working in biotech for seven years, she quit science to become a full-time artist. When not writing poetry, Saki is a costume designer, singer-songwriter, music and arts teacher, vegan pastry chef, and cat trainer.
Saki – I hope you’re not serious, because this sonnet is clever and funny, and I’d love to see more of them from you!
I love your sonnet humor and mentioning “iambically.” Exposing a feeling many must feel with their first sonnet attempt. Fun to read and well done.
Nicely done, Saki. A ray of light and a smile.
It’s interesting to note that this author uses “Saki” as a nom de plume. The English short-story master and playwright H.H. Munro used the very same nom de plume. He took the name from one of the quatrains in Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat.
I hope that the closing couplet was just an idle threat and not a promise. The author has spent a lot more time studying prosody than the narrative of the poem lets on. A nice cheeky piece of work.
A lovely piece, Saki. Hoping to see more of your poems.
A clever Shakespearean sonnet contributing to a long tradition of professed dismay on a first attempt. The following Petrarchan one is by Lope de Vega, written about 400 years ago when his Violante ordered him to produce a sonnet.
Un soneto me manda hacer Violante
que en mi vida me he visto en tanto aprieto,
catorce versos dicen que es soneto;
burla burlando van los tres delante.
Yo pense que no hallara consonante,
y estoy a la mitad de otro cuarteto;
mas si me veo en el primer terceto,
no hay cosa en los cuartetos que me espante.
Por el primer terceto voy entrando
y parece que entre con pie derecho,
pues fin con este verso le voy dando.
Yo estoy en el segundo, y aun sospecho
que voy los trece versos acabando:
contad si son catorce y esta hecho.