"To keep the review thread clean..."

Why do I like sonnets?

Good question...

I don't know for sure why sonnets appeal to me as a reader.

Perhaps the meter makes them (as a rule) more readable to me and the limitation on size (number of lines) makes getting to the point of the poem more predictable. I liked Millay's sonnets because they were written in modern language and largely to be understood at face value... one doesn't need to know anything about her or her background to easily understand most of her poems or to identify with her message. They are, to me, beautifully self-contained. So many times I read modern poetry and a left wondering, "What the fuck was this supposed to be about?"

As an occasional writer of poetry...

- the structure demands a kind of discipline that helps me focus on getting to the message of the poem quickly.

- thinking in meter (of some sort) seems to aid my ability to construct verse.

- constructing a sonnet gives me a sense of accomplishment with a finality that is not as easily realized with the other forms of poetry I have attempted. Once the poem is done, I'm not tempted to go back and add another set of verses or take a set away. Oh no... the structure won't allow that.

Having said the above, I wouldn't prefer a mediocre or poor sonnet over a fine piece of the other forms of poetry. I hope this somewhat answers your questions. Sonnet writers jump in here, please... help get me off the hook! Share your reasons and thoughts.

feverman said:

Good question...

Sonnet writers jump in here, please... help get me off the hook! Share your reasons and thoughts.

Click to expand...

good answer, you're not on the hook. personal taste, all have our reasons for it. i don't like them, so what? i've must have read about 1,000 of them, liked maybe 5 really respected only about another 15, they have a high boredom factor for me and read too much like legal documents, and have a predictable pattern.

let me show a little trick Millay works

Loving you less than life, a little less
Than bitter-sweet upon a broken wall
Or brush-wood smoke in autumn, I confess
I cannot swear I love you not at all.
For there is that about you in this light –
A yellow darkness, sinister of rain –
Which sturdily recalls my stubborn sight
To dwell on you, and dwell on you again.
And I am made aware of many a week
I shall consume, remembering in what way
Your brown hair grows about your brow and cheek,
And what divine absurdities you say:
Till all the world, and I, and surely you,
Will know I love you, whether or not I do.

in bold the line has greater concentration of polysyllabic words, starting and tapering off with the first and last bold, the other lines are mostly monosyllabic.
she has an interference pattern running against the basic iamb. one of the reasons you probably like it.
now this effect would be more noticeable the slower it is read.

at normal reading speed you hear a stream
Loving you less than life
a little less Than bitter-sweet / upon a broken wallOr brush-wood smoke in autumn


IconfessIcannotswearIloveyounotatall.
all other things being equal you notice the first and last words, take a look at the repeating consonant and vowel sounds, i,i,i hard c, hard c, oveyounot the o, tatall

just another way of looking at things

test it out, don't take my word, see if it works

Thanks for taking the time

Thanks for the comments on my latest sub, Just Another Steinbeck Summer Harry and twelveo. Harry, you've read something similar to the stalker kitty line since I refer to a "kitten stalking her jittery dandelion prey" in my older poem Cat's Paw

Thank you to Tess for recommending my poem "Fall Fell" (and an outstanding avatar btw) and to Desejo, Demure 101, Angeline and 1201 for kind comments and support.

Thank you HarryHill for the positive feedback from my October challenge poems. My husband really liked and agreed with your Japanese quote about a Man having three faces. Cool beans!

Thanks Tazz, you are consistent and even though one may not always understand your short quips, I thank you for being you!

Desejo,
Thank you for ALL positive feedback!

By the way, I happen to believe in "Spirit Guides"!
My gears are turning on ways to continue the ballad of "The White Wolf "!
I was right there with you when you saw those red eyes.

Next time listen to your cat. According to Smithsonian Magazine, other than primates, they have the closest DNA to humans than any other animal.


I'll keep the flames burning under the cauldron; it's stone crab season down here and they turn orange when cooked!!

njoyjade said:

Thank you HarryHill ........ ...... Cool beans!

Click to expand...

..
Haven't heard that one in quite a while........... Challenge time?
..
My oven is broken, to the left it leans.
All I can cook is very cool beans.
..
I am long overdue for giving thanks to those that have commented on my poems? during the last month ....... Thank you all

HarryHill said:

..

Challenge time?
..
My oven is broken, to the left it leans.
All I can cook is very cool beans.

Click to expand...

Turn off the stove, you know it leans.
Do I smell gas?
Oh, sorry, it's just the cool beans!

You are there!!!!

Oh thank you. My fish friend will be happy.
It's safe to say he's never loved anyone as much as today.
Truly a learning process and we love you. So so much.

Keep it kinky for me.

Thanks to Pandora Glitterrs for the review of my poem "naked salt" today (http://www.literotica.com/p/naked-salt). As for the comment about it being miscategorized as non-erotic I confess I find the distinction between the categories often unfathomable. Maybe that's just me.

Thanks Harry. So you missed all the references to shit in the poem? Okay. Well whatever you think, you think.

You Sound Miffed

PandoraGlitters said:

Thanks Harry. So you missed all the references to shit in the poem? Okay. Well whatever you think, you think.

Click to expand...

..
Totally lost (story of my life)

Thank you to demure101 and HarryHill for your very nice comments on "A Lady's Miscellany"--though demure I was thinking more Enlightenment than Renaissance

I don't know why you encourage this malicious juvenile, but then that has always been the problem with Lit

Oh, the quote I meant to put in didn't stick, but I meant the warped teenager Tazz, who doesn't have the courage to write anything him/her/itself

"The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

~~~~~~~~~

Why are each and every one of us special?

Because we were born!

For recent feedback
demure101, MisterSade, Mo_B_Dick,
Thank you!

For all here at Lit.com,

http://youtu.be/yfcnoIkBdjc

njoyjade said:

Next time listen to your cat. According to Smithsonian Magazine, other than primates, they have the closest DNA to humans than any other animal.

Click to expand...

DNA is overrated, most of it is junk

i.e. the same mosquito that bit our monkey grandpapa's ass six million years ago, bit a saber toothed cat's ass.

they found that snippet, identified the mosquito, his name was buzz.

later changed his name to tazz

PandoraGlitters said:

Thanks Harry. So you missed all the references to shit in the poem? Okay. Well whatever you think, you think.

Click to expand...

Harry reads Hebrew,
btw ms pg, i could very easily take that comment and apply it to your poem where Ibrahim's mama blows the place up


but since you asked Des, as you well know that is the Shaytun, PA. Red Devils football chear. I was the sixth string quarterback, the poem is about benchwarming.

twelveoone said:

DNA is overrated, most of it is junk

i.e. the same mosquito that bit our monkey grandpapa's ass six million years ago, bit a saber toothed cat's ass.

they found that snippet, identified the mosquito, his name was buzz.

later changed his name to tazz

Click to expand...

..
Too funny!
..
Hebrew??
..
My Gran Pa James, He brew some good shine. I speak that shit good! Is that a defecation relation, or am I just shitting you?

Just to clarify a few issues:

Tazz is an account held jointly by several members of a clandestine espionage cell. None of the cell member know each other and they communicate by clever ciphers embedded in Lit poem comments. Although they believe themselves to have found an impenetrable communication system, the cipher key was accidentally posted in an ugg boot spam post, and now all their messages are as transparent as a very transparent thing.

A typical decoded message reads: "Is our communication system secure?" to which someone always replies, "I am certain it is."

No action is planned, mostly because their only interest seems to be in maintaining complete secrecy, and they aren't actually spying on anyone.

twelveoone said:

but since you asked Des, as you well know that is the Shaytun, PA. Red Devils football chear. I was the sixth string quarterback, the poem is about benchwarming.

Click to expand...

Crystal clear. I don't know how I could have missed that.

Thoughts to ponder;

“You can spend your life judging people or, you can spend it making friends. Take your pick.”
― Carroll Bryant

Such is the human race, often it seems a pity that Noah... didn't miss the boat. ~Mark Twain

As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities. ~Voltaire

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.
~George Orwell

The next evolutionary step for humankind is to move from human to kind. ~Author Unknown




Sending an old fashion "peace sign" to all.

njoyjade said:

Thoughts to ponder;

“You can spend your life judging people or, you can spend it making friends. Take your pick.”
― Carroll Bryant

Click to expand...

“If gays are granted rights, next we'll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and nailbiters.”
-Anita Bryant
..
There are a lot of haters out there.