Heroic Sonnet

The Heroic Sonnet departs from the quatorzain and stretches the verse for eighteen lines which could put into question whether or not it is a true sonnet. But, John Donne’s The Token “sings” with the best of sonnets and convinced me this verse form easily qualifies. This longer sonnet form dates back to 16th century England.

The Heroic Sonnet is:
• metric, iambic pentameter.
• a poem in 18 lines made up of 4 alternate rhymed quatrains and ending with a rhymed heroic couplet.
• rhymed, rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef ghgh ii
• composed without designated arrival of the pivot, but the poem is summarized and concluded by the ending couplet.

Note dear friends: The Heroic Sonnet is the only 18 line poem I found.

The Token by John Donne (1572-1631)

Send me some token, that my hope may live,
Or that my easeless thoughts may sleep and rest;
Send me some honey to make sweet my hive,
That in my passions I may hope the best.
I beg no ribbon wrought with thine own hands,
To knit our loves in the fantastic strain
Of new-touched youth; nor ring to show the stands
Of our affection, that as that’s round and plain,
So should our loves meet in simplicity;
No, nor the corals which thy wrist enfold,
Laced up together in congruity,
To show our thoughts should rest in the same hold;
No, nor thy picture, though most gracious,
And most desired, because best like the best;
Nor witty lines, which are most copious,
Within the writings which thou hast addressed.

Send me nor this, nor that, to increase my store,
But swear thou think’st ‘I love thee,’ and no more.

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1548>

Visual Template:

Flying Bird Sonnet

Flying Bird Sonnet – aaaa bbccbb aaaa

Found only the rhyme pattern,no other specifications so am assuming
Iambic Pentameter template below.

Volta at line 11

Example Poem:

The Bird Feeder (Flying Bird Sonnet)
Assorted little song birds came to eat
near my own vision-shielded inside seat.
I have a window feeder where they meet
to peck and forage gaily while they tweet.
I fill the feeder every other day,
they reward me with melody and play.
I am uplifted, by their vivid hues
their community and the songs they choose.
From time to time a hawk will disrupt things,
and strike and kill some tiny bird that sings.
For days after, the little birds retreat.
I know that natures cycle musts complete;
there’s majesty in cycles that repeat,
but for those days I do not think it sweet.
© Larry Eberhart, aka Lawrencealot, Oct 12, 2012
Visual Template:

Dual Sonnet

Dual Sonnet
Invented by Allan R. Emery, aka Joe King on AllPoetry.com

Quatrozain
Meter: Any*
Rhyme Scheme:  Any*
The defining characteristic of this form is that it contains
two correct Sonnet rhyme patterns.
Therefore I present none here, you may choose from more than a hundred I have indentified to date.

*The poem should be written in the meter with the line length specified for the poem for identified by the end-rhyme pattern you select.

The location of the volta is also dictated by that poem type.

Here is the author’s own explanation:
This Dual Sonnet (Envelope, English) One Sonnet rhyme is executed on the sixth syllable of each line and another sonnet written in the traditional way. The rhymes are notated below in small and caps because “a” does not have to rhyme with “A”. Dual sonnets can use any two different rhyme schemes to create the poem. This one is notated below:

* X * X * a * X * A
* X * X * b * X * B
* X * X * b * X * A
* X * X * a * X * B

* X * X * a * X * C
* X * X * b * X * D
* X * X * b * X * C
* X * X * a * X * D

* X * X * c * X * E
* X * X * d * X * F
* X * X * e * X * E
* X * X * c * X * F
* X * X * d * X * G
* X * X * e * X * G

One may choose the column of the poet’s choice for the internal rhyme.

Example poem:

Don’t Knock It          (Dual Sonnet)

I guess we use this form to artfully malign
the grumblers with no style, who commonly complain.
Most poets grin or smile when treading new terrain,
but whining’s oft the norm where no new change is fine.

Let’s not be bashing thoughtful critiques showing spine,
but those who crowd the aisle and point and mock the new
as something not worthwhile if not the old world view.
As poet we should not eschew all new design.

Yet what for years has charmed, and struck us as divine
has done so all the while with its attractiveness.
Don’t think that I’ll revile the old or like it less
because I’m newly armed with forms I’ll help design

A new form may beguile, then fade, and so decline,
or might it  age awhile, improve in fact, like wine?

This is a Dual Sonnet
The specification are HERE.

This particular sonnet is based upon the
SC’s Crybaby Tear Flow  Sonnet and Betwixt Sonnet
[abba acca adda aa]                             [abba cbbc dbbd bb]
for end-rhyme and internal rhyme respectively.

Here is a visual template for the form with two specific sonnet types.

Pushkin Sonnet

This was the most difficult form to research.  Most sites have the information wrong or incomplete. I am going to post what I have determined is the most likely true and accurate information available, and post links to those sites allowing me to draw that conclusion.  My template below shows the most currently used form first, followed by the REAL Puskin Sonnet specifications.  Note the REQUIREMENT for feminine rhyme.  Usually ignored.

rhyming pattern: abab ccdd eff egg,  (Where red letters are feminine rhyme)

Visual Template:

The Pushkin or Onegin sonnet has a fascinating and flexible
profluence, which makes it suitable for the kind of modern
narrative use that Pushkin (and more recently Vikram Seth)
put it too. As someone with an interest in narrative poetry
I’ve been meaning to learn the form for a while, and this
experiment is a foray in that direction.

I think it illustrates nicely the role of the four-foot
iambic line over the five-foot line used in Petrarchan
and Shakespearean sonnets. The shorter line is bouncier,
tighter and generally draws the reader forward in ways
that the naturally punctuated pentameter does not.
The five-foot line is complete, and requires the reader
to push on over it.
The four-foot line leaves the breath wanting more.

________

This form was described as a “mettlesome creature” and A.D.P Briggs in his introduction to Evgeny Oneginstates that Pushkin invented a sonnet form which can go either way becoming Italian or English at the flick of a switch in mid stanza.

The Octave rhymes – a. b.a. b…..c.c. d.d…..

(Note) The first quatrain uses an alternating rhyme, and the second one, two couplets.

The sestet is where the change occurs and also expands the form. The original Pushkin sestet was either two tercets e.f.f…. e.g.g. and here you can see the Italian influence,

SOURCES:
http://volecentral.co.uk/vf/onegin.htm>
http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/sonnet/pushkin.html#bruce
http://www.tjradcliffe.com/?p=604>
Below are the poems used in the template.

Pentameter (non-standard):

This formulaic stanza has some power
despite its tendency to come and go,
yielding up a soft and scented flower
with sufficient patience: watch it grow
into a bloom of rich diversity
without engaging in perversity.
It varies in division, oft askance
like some exotic cell’s mitotic dance
around the mysteries of generation
it splits into uneven halves or more,
a clash of fragments, three or even four,
that form into a long and bold narration.
Yet in the end it’s form that sets us free
to discipline our thoughts and clearly see.

Tetrameter (standard):

This formulaic stanza’s power
although it tends to come and go,
will yield a soft and scented flower;
with patience you can watch it grow
into a bloom: diversity
in absence of perversity.
It divides so oft  askance,
a single cell’s mitotic dance
in mysteries of generation
of two uneven halves or more,
a clash of fragments, three or four,
that form into a bold narration.
Yet by its form we are set free
to use our mind to clearly see.

 

Cyhydedd Fer Sonnet

From Venice Bard, the current remaining Welsh authority on Allpoetry. com.

It’s just 7 Cyhydedd Fer couplets (rimed 8-syllable lines).  I don’t consider it a ‘sonnet’ myself, but Ceridwens Soul (my beloved Celtic forms teacher, now awol) did.  I suppose the ‘turn’ is anywhere you want it to be.

Example Poem:

Tell Me of Your Anger in Whispers (Cyhydedd Fer Sonnet)

If you should speak in anger, dear,
first speak where only you can hear
If meaning’s clear, is message fair?
Are words intended to repair,
and will they guide toward common ground?
Is blame essential to be found?
The words can wait, while anger cools
and then converse when reason rules.
If I’ve done something that you hate,
advise me, but the words can wait.
You know I’ll move to make amends,
because I love you and we’re friends.
Use whispers closely late tonight.
And honey, I will make it right.

Visual Template:

Acrostic Sonnet

There are several variations of acrostics, the simplest is
a poem where the first characters of each line spell out
a word, name, phrase or sentence.
One can design an acrostic using any existing form,
or no form at all.  That does not thereby create a new
form, but is merely application of a device.
Note:  In the following example I used a Supersonnet form
Then selected letters that spelled words with the number
of characters as the stanza have line.
Black Friday Shopping
The crowd was an avalanche coming in.
Event promotion: a circus it seemed.
Less time was spent preparing, staff was thin.
Leaving unspent coupons was quite undreamed.
The parking lot was now afloat with cars.
Hello! The drunks are falling out of bars
Especially to see the dancing girls
Machine precisioned bonnets hid their curls.
The stock boys were an army through the store.
Here stands the boss, a monument to glitz.
Employees hide their hair more than their tits.
You know which stumbling drunks want to see more.
Liquor, and candy-canes donned cloaks of foil.
Instant rebates were blooming on each aisle.
Kiosk sales pitches bubbled to a boil.
E-mail and flyer ads made shoppers smile.
Inventory flew through door through the night,.
This all because the voting turned out right.