POETRY WINNERS
Smashing sonnets
Alison Chisholm looks at the attention to detail that made the winners of WM’s Sonnet Competition the cream of the contest’s crop
The sonnet is one of poetry’s best-known forms, and one of the trickiest to write effectively. It needs to have fascinating content that will hold the reader’s attention, and yet its entire message must fit into fourteen lines. When you find the perfect subject, it’s equally important to master the techniques of writing a sonnet. For while the longevity of the form is aided by the fact that for centuries poets have played with it, introducing their own variants and rhyme schemes, a knowledge of the basic form is vital for all who want to demonstrate their skills as sonneteers.
Almost every entry in the sonnet competition had something interesting to say. There were plenty of original ideas, and also ideas that have been used many times before but were handled with freshness and flair, and so had the capacity to surprise and delight.
Unfortunately problems with the form meant that about three quarters of the poems entered eliminated themselves from the competition. The main problems were related to metre, and specifically the iambic pentameter required of the form, with its five feet to the line, each consisting of an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable. It isn’t enough to write in lines of ten syllables. The stress pattern is an essential part of the form’s dynamic.