What makes a sonnet good?

Question

I am new at writing sonnets. I usually do freestyles. I'm only thirteen and we havent learn this in class. So i wrote this as an experiment..

"Oh my dearest, my love Ophelia, and,
Whose sanity was lost; why must you die?
I myself would not have gotten you mad,
Nor in the bed of river would you lie

Your abundant obsessions with Hamlet
Cost me an outcast state and loss of love.
And i was greatly saddened by your death,
Since I have no right to exist above.

If intuition takes my life away
I would free myself from these bars of grief.
But in certainty, my presence must stay,
So I would be living in relief.

Swore to God, your death will not rest in vain.
I promise you, your song will gain my sane."



If you're asking what my role in this sonnet is, I am an admirer of Ophelia (not in the book, just a made up character. I think it's horrible, grammar wise and my vocabulary seems noticeably limited in this poem. I need advice! Plus I'm doing this as my summer reading assignment. Thank you.

Answer 1

"I think it's horrible, grammar wise and my vocabulary seems noticeably limited in this poem. I need advice!"



You might be a little too hard on yourself, but you're not completely wrong.



If you want to write good sonnets, you need to read a lot of good sonnets. Not just sonnets written by William Shakespeare, John Donne, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and other great poets of previous centuries, but also sonnets in contemporary language. Edna St. Vincent Millay and Claude McKay are two 20th century poets who wrote excellent sonnets. You can easily find examples of their poems online. This zine has sonnets by poets writing today:



http://www.14by14.com/



Geminisinger means well, but the people she recommends do not write good sonnets. Reading their work will not help you improve your own writing.

Answer 2

Due in December? You got lots of time, if you don't dawdle. Google "Petrarchan sonnet", and "Sonnets from the Portuguese " (which contains Petrarchan sonnets from a very solid poet). Read 'em. WALLOW in 'em. Sonnets are only 140 syllables long, so the reading won't take long. You can handle that. The rhyme schemes are 'no sweat' obvious. You can handle that, too. Iambic pentameter is just a beat: "The nose forgot giraffes beneath the pond". You can handle it. The thing about 'the octet' and 'the sextet' (other terms might be used) will be an awkward lift the first couple of times. You can handle it, though, by thinking "first eight lines, the setup; last six, the punch line". You'll refine thinking on that later, but it'll do for now. Write a few piece-o'-crap attempts at a sonnet. It won't take more than about half an hour per sonnet. Write bad sonnets or total-botch sonnets for an hour, or ninety minutes if you can focus that long. Compare your stuff to sonnets that work. Throw your bad sonnets away after you've seen how they don't match the shapes of the good sonnets. Write a few more. These should be noticeably closer or 'getting there'; you might even have a 'hey! this isn't bad!' sonnet. Throw 'em away after you've done that 'matching' thing. Now write the project sonnet. It'll work; it might even be good. If you need another, you'll be able to knock it off in 25 minutes, or less. My personal best time for a petrarchan sonnet is 12 minutes--alas, that one is unsuitable for a sophomore English class, so not useful for the project you're trying to dodge. It's in my questions: "This is rather like a poem, don't you think?" Come on, you can beat THAT piece of crap, can't ya? It ain't rocket surgery; it ain't ditch digging; it's reading, and writing, and not very much writing, at that. Go get your hands dirty.,

Answer 3

It is very difficult to have genuine feelings about a fictional character. I found your poem difficult to decipher, and I suspect that may be a result of your attempting to construct bogus feelings for an Ophelia you have never met.



Poetry works best when it is genuine; and most of us are more likely to be genuine when we write out of what we know. Look around the town where you live: write about the things you see and hear, the people you know there.



You won't find many competent sonnetteers on this site: if you are sure that a sonnet is what you want, Sonnet Central has a tyro area (the Poetry Free For All is also good for beginners).



But the best way to learn how to write a sonnet is to go to the masters. Geoffrey Hill's Requiem for the Plantagenet Kings is one of the finest English sonnets by a living poet.

Answer 4

Usually if your lady approves of it and her heart melts.

Questor has a loyal following of swooners,

Read his and use it as an example.

To make a sonnet great,it can include

personal experiences ,like a moonlit walk.

Answer 5

I suggest you read the sonnets of Questor,Yesu Ben,and others on this site.