LBI Poets Studio

Whether you are an accomplished poet or a new one, our monthly workshop will inspire you. To attend this virtual event please contact Sue Cummings via email scummings817@comcast.net.

This group meets the 1st Thursday of every month from 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm on Zoom. You may also join the program in-person at the LBI Library in the meeting room each month.

Our Prompt for June is to write a Shakespearean Sonnet:  A Shakespearean sonnet consists of two parts: an eight line section, called the octet, followed by a six line section called the sestet.   The RHYME scheme is ABAB  CDCD  EFEF GG.  Each line contains ten syllables, repeating the pattern of "unstressed followed by stressed" five times.  This pattern is called iambic pentameter, the heartbeat meter because of its similarity to the rhythm of the human heart. The main message of the poem is stated most directly in the last two lines.

Shall I Compare thee to a summers day?  Speak this line out-loud.... you will hear in your voice  the rhythm of iambic pentameter--  each line in a sonnet is written in iambic pentameter, i.e. in this rhythm.

Shall( unstressed) I (stressed)

Comp (unstressed) pare (stressed)

thee (unstressed) to (stressed)

a (unstressed) sum (stressed)

mer's (unstressed) day (stressed)

THE RHYME SCHEME 

1  A

2  B

3  A

4  B

5  C

6  D 

7  C

8  D

9     E

10   F

11   E

12   F

13  G

14  G

Note* For me this is a daunting prompt.  I don't usually write to any form, and this one...well it looks like rocket science to me.  I am making it the prompt for June to challenge myself and you to have the experience of writing in this elegant form.  I'm going to give it my best...and see if I can get close!  Even if it's a train wreck...I'll share it in June!

and...Remember... YOU never have to write to the prompt!  So if this doesn't feel right for you... CHOOSE ONE OF THE BONUS WORDS...as a starting point for a poem of your own liking!

As a Bonus Challenge use three or more of the following words selected at random from Niall William's novel, Time of the Child.

resolve, history, hare-track, customers, complaints, grudges, catalog, mask, sake, pew, immutability, hardware, sheepdog, hindsight, registers, semblance, priest, devotion, charcoal, chronic, dogged, pretend, tattooing, stained-glass, suspension, musculature, knot, tapped, age, culprit, balding, corkscrew, cage, miniature, tweed, greenish, gentry, nominal, corporal, sprig, bashful, sliced, slather, thorny, strawberry-red, kissed, ridiculous, Annie, crinkled, bottles, dawn, ring-marked, sprung, griddle, dictum, shout, cattle, trot, triangle, traffic, dazzle, doom, stool, banners, interior, cheer, crux, breakfast, luminous, doorknob, crackle, brow, six, fantastical, camouflage, gesture, ruckus, tea, breeze, mystics, adopted

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