A Sonnet for Emily

a sonnet for a free verse poet

A poet who once lived in a small borough,  
Endeavoured to write all night and all day,
Vowed to make her words endure come what may,
Honed her craft till it made her brow furrow,
Till the weight made her feel like a burro,
She began to contemplate; wish and pray,
To muster the courage to go astray,
And embark on an off the rhyme furlough

She then devised a most radical plan,
To step outside the small box she was in,
Toss out rhyme and iambic pentameter,
Thought she would when no one believed she can,
A poet named Emily Dickinson,
Women's history free verse pioneer.

Author's Note

I have set myself a challenge of writing sonnets now and again. But since I am a rebel
against form poetry, I have opted for an ode to a free verse poet within the confines
of a Petrarchan sonnet, written in iambic pentameter as an English sonnet, rhyme scheme for the Octave is a b b a a b b a. This presents the problem, the sestet presents the solution in the rhyme scheme c d e c d e -- (Volta) Free Verse! Heresy, I know, but conventions and rules in poetry are meant to be broken
CAPTCHA outbrave
I am not a one trick pony. I choose to write my emotions freely and with honesty.
That does not make me a good or bad poet, but a human poet. Any verse can be
moving, be it within the confines of a strict form or not. It is how the words are
presented on the page that the emotions are revealed. -- although this one does break some rules, it also follows a lot of them, and I have decided to leave it, as is.

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

A beautiful poem for the great Poet. I like how you weaved the poem to a very good ending. Thank you for sharing the amazing poetry. I like when the old Poets are kept alive by us.
Coyote

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you so much.

[Coyote Poetry]

You are welcome.

[redzone]

I'd say, rebel, most brave, woman, poet these describe both Emily and you KL... perhaps the captcha in its attempt to describe your poem should have simply said: "KL-esque"... .
Perhaps you may get the sense I appreciate your " not a one trick pony" poetry..
~~redzone

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you I appreciate it. I am having fun.

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

I love free verse and she was a master of it for sure, and this is such a fine sonnet honoring her. BRAVO!!

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed, I hope she would appreciate the "irony"

[The Rock And Roll Cowboy(REBEL WITH A CAUSE)]

Something tells me she would, wait I am channeling her now, heap I hear a giggle in my head.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I really like this one, but then I am also biased, since Emily Dickinson is my favorite poet of all time.

well done.

[Lyn Anderson]

Thanks I was thinking Emily might appreciate the twist of praising free verse with a sonnet.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

yes, a good twist....she violated form so well....she would like the use of form to talk about violating...

[Rene Salinas]

Great not only the fact that you branched out, that in itself deserves praise for been corageous. Then the word Burro, and most of all a way to elevate another writer. I know very little actually and although I did do a quick recap of her life I realized that to that extent the image created here is more than enough. Of somone tried and succeded in many ways.

Innovative feeling here

Thankyou

[Lyn Anderson]

Well, basically, I tried to put myself in the place of a woman of that time frame. There are so many women in history who railed against the established norm, and her legacy was to be remembered as one of the greatest free verse pioneers of all time, when the list was mostly men. I am constantly stymied by the idea that "real poetry" is one or the other, invalidating other amazing works and people in history. But then again, I am a hypocrite, I think, if I can't step out of my own views and try something new. Therefore, I feel I am more well rounded if I can accomplish different forms and styles and still be true to myself.

[Rene Salinas]

Well in my view is more what you feel more related to and again purely subjective stick to it until you can develop your own language..... I agree with you if your inner calling says try stuff do so...

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Now you are bamboozling me with technical detail! It reads as well as your true free verse but is different. Good to extend oneself and experiment out of your comfort zone.

[Lyn Anderson]

Yes, well, I feel to adequately express emotion I am better with free verse, but within certain subjects I can tackle these forms. Interestingly, I started out thinking I would write about myself, but then I thought, how cool, to write a sonnet recognizing a free verse poet -- it has a nice ring of rebel to it.:)