Jeffery’s Sonnet

My guess is the middle intital “J.” in Scott J. Alcorn stands for Jeffrey. Or, this sonnet is named for the title or subject of a poem written by Alcorn. It appears the form varies from the metric pattern of most sonnets and has a unique rhyme scheme.

Jeffrey’s Sonnet is:
• 2 sestets followed by a couplet.
• syllabic, 8 syllables per line.
• rhymed, rhyme scheme aabccb ddeffe ge. There is internal cross rhyme within syllables 2 thru 4 of L7, L13 & L14.
• composed with no suggested criteria for a pivot although it appears to occur between the sestets, leaving the end couplet as a summary.

x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x b
x x x x x x x c
x x x x x x x c
x x x x x x x b

x x x b x x x d
x x x x x x x d
x x x x x x x e
x x x x x x x f
x x x x x x x f
x x x x x x x e

x x e x x x x g
x x x g x x x e

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1785>

Example Poem:

Color Me Cold   (Jeffery’s Sonnet0
I, being forced somewhere to go,
had to ignore the winter snow.
There were no airport flights today.
The clouds were threatening and grey;
I could now get there just one way.
With fear I drove into the haze.
The ice was glaze on Interstate;
I’d either die or get there late.
I fell into a motel bed.
I’d sleep some then I’d drive refreshed.
Two nights I was a captured guest.
The urge to leave was in my head.
I found instead car frozen tight.
for through the night the ice had spread.
© Lawrencealot – June 18, 2013
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Fourteener

Meter: Iambic heptameter
Rhyme Scheme: That of any other sonnet.
Volta, That of selected sonnet form.

A Fourteener is used by some as an alternate term for sonnet.
However, poets have also used the term to mean a sonnet in iambic heptameter:
fourteen lines, each with seven iambs (fourteen syllables).
You can use the rhyme scheme of any sonnet form you choose.
The problem with the fourteener is that you could just as easily break each
line into one line of iambic tetrameter (four iambs), followed by a line of iambic trimeter (three iambs). At that point, you’re actually writing in common meter, or ballad meter.
No longer is the poem slow and introspective: it becomes a jaunty, sing-song little number.
Once we get beyond the Alexandrine ( Iambic hexamter), the lines tend to crumble into smaller sections under their own weight.
Here are some well known songs in ballad meter.

“Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

“There is a house in New Orleans they call the Rising Sun,
it’s been the ru[in] of many [a poor] boy, and God I know I’m one.”

“I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,
I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.”

This shouldn’t dissuade you from trying your hand at the Fourteener form,
but you should work to justify the length of the lines by filling them with imagery and beautiful figurative language.

Example poem:

The Highwayman (Fourteener)

When Mabel saw the highwayman, a dandy to be sure,
(his manicure was evident, his lips were freshly glossed,
his brocade vest was all bedecked with silver’s bright allure),
she wanted to be taken by this man at any cost.

“Please stop this carriage! Don’t resist!”she told her able crew.
His ribbons and his earrings were as fine as were her own.
Her bosom swelled, her breath came faster with the closer view.
She wanted naught today but this highwayman alone.

“My dearest lady, please step down. Your loveliness is such
I’ll leave the lock-box to my crew- and you shall be my guest.
Your slender waist and flowing hair excites as does your chest.
My crew seeks other treasure but it’s you I wish to touch.”

The highway man in all this time has never fired a gun.
The ladies tell their drivers, “You are not to fight or run. ”

© Lawrencealot – May 14, 2013

Note: This Fourteener is penned in the style of a Tennyson-Turner Sonnet

AA Sonnet – 12 Step Sonnet

This sonnet was invented by Larry Eberhart, aka, Lawrencealot

It steals a page from the Burmese poem form know a Ya Du, in that it uses staircase-rhyme as well as end-rhyme.

The sonnet can be written in either Iambic or Trochaic Tetrameter or Pentameter. The form is different for each, because of the 12-Step internal rhyme pattern.

The Tetrameter version is three quatrains and a couplet,

Rhyme Patter n:    abab cdcd efef gg

The internal rhyme has the first syllable rhyming with the For each stanza the first syllable in line 1 

rimes with the 2nd syllable in line2
with the 3rd syllable in line 3, and
with the 4th syllable in line 3.

The Petrameter version is two sestets and a couplet.

Rhyme Pattern is  abcabc dedede ff
The same scheme is applied to each stanza as was used in
the tetramter version, except at Line 4, and L10 new
rhyme sounds are selected.  (This limiting required rhymes to three)

NO Volta is required, but may be used anywhere at poet’s discretion.


Example.



Restraint       (AA Sonnet – 12 Step Sonnet)

A drunk husband with rifle in the door. 

That day I was the fourth cop there, so went 
right away to the rear of that small house. 
The cops were talking – they would talk some more. 
A danger now stalked we hoped to prevent. 
I found window unlocked, with view of spouse. 

Beyond the wife was man with back to me, 

and he was never looking back my way. 
Quietly, I slide open my entry, 
but paused- negotiations underway 
were calming him, though he held the gun he 
did not point, so I showed restraint that day. 

Entering that room I’d have been a fuse- 

With not a lot to gain and much to lose.

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