Chained Sonnet

Chained Sonnet
Type:
Structure, Metrical Requirement, Repetitive Requirement, Isosyllabic, Simple, Pivot Requirement
Description:
Each line begins with the last word of the preceding line.
Notes:
To keep to iambic pentameter with this form, each line-ending word must be iambic and an even number of syllables to restart the next line keeping to meter.
Chained Sonnet is any sonnet that uses the poetic device of chaining
The defining features of the Chained sonnet is:
  • the verse is written in any sonnet form.
  • chained when the end word of the previous line is the first word of the next line.
  • flexible, at the poet’s discretion, to bring the sonnet full circle the first word of the sonnet is the last word of the sonnet.
My Thanks to Charles L. Weatheford and Judi Van Gorden for the fine resources above.
Example Poem
Gargoyles Aren’t Real – We Are     (Chained Sonnet)
Before we met I had become entranced,
Entranced by how my life had been enhanced.
Enhanced by lack of guile which so revealed,
Revealed a spirit not to be concealed.
Concealed not by an artifact deployed.
Deployed so verity is not destroyed.
Destroyed in falsity would be belief,
belief that truth would reap its own relief,
relief from wearing faces that dispute–
dispute your soul and render self abuse.
Abuse not one another with pretend.
Pretend creates facades you can’t defend.
The grinning gargoyles sat and watched above,
above our heads as we two fell in love.
© Lawrencealot – February 23, 2014
Visual Template

Shadow Sonnet

Created by Amera Anderson
May be written in any sonnet style. The Shadow takes place at the beginning and ending of each line as the words are identical or homophonic words or
their derivatives.
14 lines
Should have a volta or pivot (if original form does)
Iambic pentameter is not necessary

Example Poem:

Tell Me of Your Anger in Whispers    (Shadow Sonnet)

Speak not in anger, though mad when you speak.
Compose yourself then attempt to compose
phrases defining call to act, phrases
filled not with blame, but requests I can fill.

Partners resolve issues when as partners
they proceed- each understanding that they
own both messages, not merely their own.
I want my final words to be, “Aye aye.”

Wait while upsets subside. It’s worth the wait.
Care taken framing talk is proof you care.
Help smoothing objections is a big help
solving any problem which we must solve.

Nighttime brings closeness with romance of night.
Whispered concerns vanish with a whisper.

(c) Lawrencealot – March 30, 2012

Visual Template:

 

Sestina Sonnet

The Sestina Sonnet is written in ten-syllable lines(usually iambic pentameter) and is structured with three stanzas; three quatrains(four-line stanzas) and a concluding couplet(a two-line stanza). The interesting thing about the Sestina Sonnet is that it actually doesn’t rhyme. It retains the Sestina qualities by repeating the end-words of lines throughout the piece.

The four words that end the lines of the first stanza, end the lines of the other two stanzas, in a different order each time. The last stanza, uses two of those words per line, with one in the middle and one at the end of the line.

Example Poem:

Tell Me of Your Anger in Whispers (Sestina Sonnet)

Don’t start a message with an angry word
for voice will carry tones that are not right
for saying what is needed to be heard.
An angry start can last until the night.

Daytime travails get pushed away at night
and ‘ere we sleep all problems should be heard.
Tell me I’ve goofed without an angry word.
We’ll fix it, regardless of who is right.

Experience shows that you’re usually right
unless you misunderstood deed or word.
A certain magic when we talk at night
yields solutions from voices that are heard.

You will be heard and things will work out right.
Tell me at night by way of whispered word.

(c) Lawrencealot – November 7, 2012

Visual template:
In previous examples I have show most set for Iambic so let’s be different here.