Why do you think poets have found the sonnet form to be so useful for writing about subjects like love, beauty, life, and death? Is there something in the struggle between the structure created by the rules and the desire for expression of important matters of the heart that makes the sonnet form so useful for poets?

The sonnet has been a popular form of poetry in the English language ever since it was introduced in the 1500’s in translations and adaptations from Italian sonnets of the Renaissance period. Compared to some closed forms of poetry, the sonnet seems simple and loose, and poets seem to have enjoyed pushing the boundaries, bending the rules, and making the form new. On the other hand, compared to free verse, the rules in terms of line number, meter, and rhyme scheme seem very tight and constricting. How on earth can you really express yourself in fourteen lines of iambic pentameter that rhymes ABBA, BCCB, CDDC, EE? Yet generations of poets seem to have done just that. Take a look back at “Black Sea” by Mark Strand from last module. It doesn’t follow the rules so strictly, but I think we could consider it a contemporary sonnet.

Why do you think poets have found the sonnet form to be so useful for writing about subjects like love, beauty, life, and death? Is there something in the struggle between the structure created by the rules and the desire for expression of important matters of the heart that makes the sonnet form so useful for poets? Write a post of about 200-250 words about how sonnet form works or doesn’t work expressively.

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