Whittled Words – English Sonnet
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Welcome to the weekly series, Whittled Words. A series highlighting the innumerable types and styles of poetry to challenge any creative wordsmith. If you are new to writing poetry, I hope you will find something that sparks your pen to paper and brings out your own inner poet. For the seasoned poets, I hope you will take on the challenge of writing in forms you may not be familiar with. This week’s selection:
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ENGLISH (SHAKESPEAREAN) SONNET
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A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme. Each type of sonnet follows a different rhyming scheme. The form is used in other variations which we will highlight later in the series. For the English sonnet, the form is as follows:
- 14-line poem
- 3 quatrains (4-line stanzas) followed by 1 couplet (2 line stanza)
- Rhyming scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
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Examples of English (Shakespearean) Sonnet:
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All We Will Be
By Tynea Lewis
He sits, paying no attention to me.
I wonder what is going through his head.
It hurts knowing friends is all we will be.
His unexpected glace turns my face red.
His mud brown eyes are so piercing and deep.
Then a smile fills his flawless, tanned face.
If only into his heart I could creep.
The slow motion moment makes my heart race.
Our time together is a dream come true
But I fear he can see into my heart.
When I am with him, I don’t feel so blue,
But something new won’t be able to start.
Since nothing will be, onward I must go.
These feelings I have to hide and not show.
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Refugee
by Brad Osborne
How can it be, country vanished
Bombed into a city of dead
Fear feasts on the famished
Our only homes must be fled
Family torn deep as the land
Pack mule mother in the street
Holding her dirty child’s hand
Dust covers their unshod feet
What hell be left for they to face
How could it be anything less
Then the agony of this place
Where war has made this mess
Knowing not what may lie ahead
They shuffle off filled with dread
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I hope you have enjoyed the first of this series, Whittled Words. I look forward to your comments, and if you dare, maybe share your own English sonnet. Thanks for reading!
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commonsensiblyspeaking 
I loved your take on this. Missed reading your work. Too good to miss.
Thank you, dear Yasmin!
My pleasure, Brad.
the refugee poem is heartbreaking
Thank you, Beth! A subject worthy of the classic sonnet form.
Both of the poems broke my heart. Yours is especially piercing. I could invision the mother grabbing her child’s dirty hand. 💔😢
Very well written!
Thank you, my dear friend! Of all the things I have witnessed in the world, people displaced by violence is one of the saddest. I appreciate your kind words. ♥😘
As your poem so eloquently implies, it isn’t just the lives that are lost in the war; it is the lives of the living that somehow must go on afterward.
Thank you, Pete! It is hard to imagine having no place to call home.