Poetic Studies Lesson 5: Sonnet Structure

Lesson Five: Sonnet Structure

Materials needed: With Rough Gods and access to linked documents.

Read the following information and answer the following questions.

1: Read the Wikipedia entry on Sonnets (alternatively: give your own presentation on Sonnets). Does the sonnet have a "traditional" role? What is it? What are the parts of the sonnet and their function? Do the poems in With Rough Gods have voltas? Do they need them? Would you call the poems in With Rough Gods sonnets or not? Why?

2: Traditional forms of sonnets include the Shakespearean and Petrarchan. Modern forms include the Hilbertian. Read some sonnets in these forms. By contrast, the sonnets in With Rough Gods are iambic trimeter and, with few exceptions, ABAB CDCD EFEGFG. How does the structure of the sonnets in With Rough Gods create a different experience from more traditional forms? Write your own sonnet or rewrite a traditional sonnet in the form of the sonnets of With Rough Gods. Rewrite one of the sonnets of With Rough Gods in a traditional sonnet form.

3: William Carlos Williams said modern American poets must "break the pentameter" to find our own voice. Traditionally this has been seen as using free verse instead of metrical lines. Do the poems of With Rough Gods sufficiently "break the pentameter"? Does their language sound more "natural" or "American" than other, more traditional sonnets? Why or why not?