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is ten sylabbles to a line, roughly. Shakespeare breaks this
rule occasionally, as he does with exact rhyme. But it
shouldn't really stray past 11 or under 9. I've written sonnets
and the best thing to do is to take a main idea, something
to do with love, but find an image. Love is like winter,
for example. Now remember sonnets are written to someone,
or about someone, at least usually. So don't let it be too
abstract. Then, just start. Start at the beginning, and get
one stanza. It becomes like building a puzzle. If you try
a line that doesn't work in the first stanza, it might
in the third, changed a bit. So save it. Cut and paste.
And remember you're going for a richness of language.
Use your thesaurus. Substitute for the ordinary words.
Call it something else.
Posted by Bill Routhier on April 25, 1997 at 07:41:54
In Reply to "Break it down" posted by Hamlet on April 22, 1997 at 08:42:22
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