[HN Gopher] The constraints and 'small freedoms' of the sonnet
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       The constraints and 'small freedoms' of the sonnet
        
       Author : apollinaire
       Score  : 8 points
       Date   : 2023-02-13 02:49 UTC (20 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.the-tls.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.the-tls.co.uk)
        
       | a_e_k wrote:
       | There's a passage that I love near the end of Madeleine L'Engle's
       | "A Wrinkle in Time" (1962) that mentions exactly this idea in the
       | context of a discussion on predestination vs. free will, and not
       | knowing what the future holds.
       | 
       |  _" There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic
       | pentameter. That's a very strict rhythm or meter, yes?"_
       | 
       |  _" Yes." Calvin nodded._
       | 
       |  _" And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if
       | the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is
       | it?"_
       | 
       |  _" No."_
       | 
       |  _" But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to
       | say whatever he wants, doesn't he?"_
       | 
       |  _" Yes." Calvin nodded again._
       | 
       |  _" So," Mrs. Whatsit said._
       | 
       |  _" So what?"_
       | 
       |  _" Oh, do not be stupid boy!" Mrs. Whatsit scolded. "You know
       | perfectly well what I am driving at!"_
       | 
       |  _" You mean you're comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict
       | form, but freedom within it?"_
       | 
       |  _" Yes," Mrs. Whatsit said. "You're given the form, but you have
       | to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to
       | you."_
        
       | hprotagonist wrote:
       | _I love what you say about the form talking back. That captures
       | something absolutely essential. You bring what you bring. The
       | form then makes you do things you didn't know you could do, tells
       | you things you didn't know.
       | 
       | I remember when I was in my twenties, trying to write a sonnet
       | sequence, and when I'd just come to the last couplet of the
       | second sonnet, thinking, oh my God, I know what that last line is
       | going to be. I had no idea that was where the sequence was going,
       | but the form had spoken. The form had pushed back._
       | 
       | -- rowan williams
       | 
       | https://imagejournal.org/article/obliqueness-and-extravaganc...
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-13 23:01 UTC)