So let us have a closer look at Jack’s “Sonnet to an Egotist” (see post dated 4th January 2010) and see if we can decide whether or not it is a Sonnet.
Immediately we can see that it is not in Iambic Pentameter (keep up there, we discussed this in my last post!) but Iambic Tetrameter (4 feet to a line):
Ano/ther sum/mer al/most gone
The poem does have 14 lines. The subject matter could also be considered to fit the bill and it does have a “turn” at the ninth line – “The virgin treble voice…..” The rhyme pattern however is somewhat erratic. So is it a Sonnet?
A few months back I had a brief discussion on the subject of when is a Sonnet not a Sonnet with the poet Michael Hulse at a reading from his recently published book “The Secret History” (Arc Publications. ISBN 978-1906570-24-8). His view was that poetic forms must be allowed to develop, as indeed the Shakesperian Sonnet developed from the Petrachan. I do not disagree with this view.
However, the question is how far can the form be developed before it ceases to be a Sonnet at all and simply becomes a short poem. Yes, poetry must be allowed to develop, but surely if you are writing a poem to a set traditional form it must, even today, adhere to that form in most respects in order to be described as such.
Modern times call for modern Sonnets: fair comment. I can cope with erratic rhyme, indeed I can accept that there is no need for it to rhyme at all. But surely, to be a Sonnet a poem must meet most of the criteria – and indeed I have to say that, as we have seen, Jack’s does.
Michael Hulse also commented that a poem is a Sonnet if the poet says it is. I have a problem with this statement as it would then follow that any poem is a Sonnet if the writer chooses to describe it as such. Also I still have issue with the metric form – so ingrained is it from my schooldays that a Sonnet is 14 lines of Iambic Pentameter.
However, we will accept the terms of Michael’s statement and give Jack the last word. His “Sonnet to an Egotist” is a Sonnet because he said so and it does at least fulfil most of the reqirements of a traditional Sonnet. What do you think?
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