Loving you ripens me, tender and sweet
Early before dawn I wake with you near
My hand to your chest to feel your heart beat
I whisper “we don’t have much time left here”
Your eyes meet mine in this dim soft twilight
Knowing I’m not talking about this day
Two old lovers curl together, hold tight
Holding each other since that is our way
Gentle kisses laid upon this sweet face
Morning, noon, and night, each day we embrace!
From the Author: True story in a sonnet.
NaPoWriMo Prompt: To refresh you on the “rules” of the traditional sonnet:
- 14 lines
- 10 syllables per line
- Those syllables are divided into five iambic feet. (An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). The word “admit” is a good example. In pronouncing it, you put more stress on the “mit” than the “ad.”
- Rhyme schemes vary, but the Shakespearean sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg (three quatrains followed by a concluding couplet).
- Sonnets are often thought of as not just little songs, but little essays, with the first six-to-eight or so lines building up a problem, the next four-to-six discussing it, and the last two-to-four coming to a conclusion.
- Given all these rules, it’s perhaps surprising that love poems make up quite a chunk of sonnets in English, but maybe that’s just because love poems make up quite a chunk of all poems in English?
After all this, here’s your prompt! Try your hand at a sonnet – or at least something “sonnet-shaped.” Think about the concept of the sonnet as a song, and let the format of a song inform your attempt. Be as strict or not strict as you want.
WhatsHerName Writes 