Whimsical Sonnet

This Sonnet form was introduced in a contest on Allpoetry by Numi_Earl_Grey

When I asked him to name the sonnet, this was his response.

Ah, a name - probably Wayne's Honestly Intricate Mono-Stanza'd Imperfectly Coupleted Alternately-Layered Sonnet, or the WHIMSICAL Sonnet for short...

The following is his own introduction to the sonnet:

My friends, I shall impart this wisdom: True,

if life were thus parlayed in newish Sonnet form

we'd need some kind of rhyme and rhythm - New,

this form would break with stale traditions and the norm. 

Now, why would we begin such daunting tasks?

Is it because we're just some new iconoclasts?

Have we been drinking bourbon from our flasks?

Or do we wish to strip away old pretense masks?

The latter would be beneficial; though

you may not want such thoughts and views upon your shelves -

such innovative types (like us) forego

the safety nets that small minds cast around themselves.

My friends, you have a choice - remain secure,

or journey in, so we may walk the untrod shores...

New Sonnet Form Details:

Lines alternate between iambic pentameter and iambic hexameter (no, not sexameter!).

So that's lines of ten and twelve syllables, all going da-daa-da-daa-da-daa...

Rhyme scheme is ABAB CCCC DEDE FF' where F' is a near rhyme to F.

I think the CCCC mono-rhyme stanza breaks the monotony of the ABAB, and the near rhyme at the end breaks the monotony of the perfect rhyming.

Here is the poem which he selected as the winner of the contest.

Poor William (Numi Sonnet)(Renamed Whimscal Sonnet)

Poor William’s not around to try this form—

And pity ’tis, for he would do it up right just!

And not, as I’m intending, flaunt the norm

By using Irish rime* to land on verse’s cusp.

Nor would the Master tempted be to write

In meter that’s so regular the reader might

While reading fall asleep, as if dim night

Had dawned and scared away all ambient delight.

No, he would teach a lesson with his wind

By breaking ev’ry rule rich pedants have proclaimed,

Such as the thought a trochee would rescind

The name ‘iambic’ from a line (as if ’twere lamed).

And I have tried to follow in his footsteps

Here, as opposed to following poetic goosesteps.

* Irish rime is what the Welsh call it;

 the Irish themselves call it perfect ‘correspondence’

or Comharda (the closest thing the Irish have to rime), 

which allows substitution of like-sounding consonants, 

such as t and p (e.g. ‘just’ and ‘cusp’).

(c) Gary Kent Spain, writing as Venicebard

Visual Template of the Form