Tag Archives: iambic heptameter

Folded Sonnet

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This is a gadget sonnet form invented by Barry Hopkins, aka Black_Narcissus of Allpoetry.com.

These are the specifications I am sure of for the Folded Sonnet:
It is a 12 line sonnet. (Providing a form that now gives us a sonnet of every line-length between 10 and 17)
Rhyme pattern: aabbccddeeff
Metric: Written in iambic heptameter.
Volta required at L9.

I would suggest that any rhyme scheme would be acceptable.

My example

A Black Narcissus Fantasy (Folded Sonnet)

Jejunity’s absent from every verse that poet pens
Immunity from boredom is a treat his work portends.
Self-deprecating humor laced with frequent badinage
O’er shadows grand intelligence he tries to camouflage.
He teaches while he plays with words, although that’s not his aim;
I’m moved to emulate his style and jump into the game.
His rhymes are often fresh and new with phrases seldom seen.
If I could visit England, I’d see him before the Queen.
But though I write in rooms that simply don’t seem to exist
I’m never there when he is- so my searching will persist.
I’ll know that I’ve achieved one goal when I read someone’s quote:
“That verse I saw by Larry looks like something Barry wrote.”

© Lawrencealot -July 26, 2014

 

Visual Template

Folded Sonnet

Nevada Sonnet

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A Nevada Sonnet is merely a Fourteener with required, consistent internal rhyme occurring at the same syllable in each line.  The idea is to keep the Alexandrine meter from falling apart under its own weight.  This is all about making the sonnet a more cohesive unit.
Metrics: 14 lines written in Iambic heptameter
Rhyme Pattern:  Any sonnet pattern known to man, including blank verse.
Defining characteristic:  An internal rhyme pair in consistent position on each line.
Volta optional.
 
Example Poem:
I’ve Killed   (Nevada Sonnet)
 
An atheist, an agnostic, a Christian and a fool,
I’ve been deist, and quite caustic toward what I’ve  deemed fraud.
I’ve been a lout who wielded clout, a bureaucrat, a tool,
an entrepreneur, full of manure, and… some things to laud.
I’ve killed, and not in war.  For that my soul is sore.  The rest
I can amend or change my friend, but that’s indelible.
I killed what meant most to me.  His ghost I see- on rare nights.
Mercy killing, though culture willing, is not correctable.
I killed my dying pup.  Defying reason, conscience stings.
I was too small then to quell all life with one mighty blow.
I had to hit ,and cry and hit, hit again.  Of all things
I’ve ever done, that is the one that haunts.  Empathy so
flows to dogs that all my life, says my wife, I’ve felt more pain
for them then men.  That may be so until we meet again.
 
© Larry Eberhart, aka, Lawrencealot
 
 
Visual Template:
 
 

Fourteener

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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