Nevada Sonnet

A Nevada Sonnet is merely a Fourteener with required, consistent internal rhyme occurring at the same syllable in each line.  The idea is to keep the Alexandrine meter from falling apart under its own weight.  This is all about making the sonnet a more cohesive unit.

Metrics: 14 lines written in Iambic heptameter

Rhyme Pattern:  Any sonnet pattern known to man, including blank verse.

Defining characteristic:  An internal rhyme pair in consistent position on each line.

Volta neither required nor prohibited.

Example Poem:

I've Killed   (Nevada Sonnet)

An atheist, an agnostic, a Christian and a fool,

I've been deist, and quite caustic toward what I've  deemed fraud.

I've been a lout who wielded clout, a bureaucrat, a tool,

an entrepreneur, full of manure, and… some things to laud.

I've killed, and not in war.  For that my soul is sore.  The rest

I can amend or change my friend, but that's indelible.

I killed what meant most to me.  His ghost I see- on rare nights.

Mercy killing, though culture willing, is not correctable.

I killed my dying pup.  Defying reason, conscience stings.

I was too small then to quell all life with one mighty blow.

I had to hit ,and cry and hit, hit again.  Of all things

I've ever done, that is the one that haunts.  Empathy so

flows to dogs that all my life, says my wife, I've felt more pain

for them then men.  That may be so until we meet again.

© Larry Eberhart, aka, Lawrencealot

Visual Template:

Multidirectional Sonnet

I first saw this form or treatment by Mary Lou Healy on Allpoetry.com.
It is not a form it is a technique requiring skill and talent that can be applied to any existing sonnet form.

The sonnet makes sense read first line to last or last line to first.

Example Poem:

The Hand of Time

Whose face is this within my looking glass?
Someone appears with age-etched lines…I ask,
How do the seasons thus so swiftly pass?
I must have drunk from some enchanted flask!

Oh, I remember when all things were new.
They once shone out in future’s ardent glow
It seems my days have dwindled to a few
When did my certain step become so slow?

Buds have blossomed, blown and gone to dust.
Leaves have greened and burned and fallen, all
As nature’s children, living beings must.    
Too soon, we heed that urgent beckoning call.

The hand of time will find and gently touch
All things we've grown to love so very much.

(c) Mary Lou Healy - August, 2011

Miltonic Sonnet

The Miltonic Sonnet is:

a quatorzain, enjambment is used to tighten the sonnet,

leaving the 14 lines unbroken by stanzas.

metered, iambic pentameter

rhymed, uses the Petrarchan rhyme scheme abbaabbacdecde.

pivot evolves slowly after L8, or does not,

composed around the themes of moral issues and political insights.

Example Poem:

Arrogance

The arrogance some wear is but a cloak. 

A garment of disdain. Quality men 

are known by deeds alone. No smirks and then 

derisive sneers or swipes atother folk. 

For arrogant, what do they shield? A joke? 

Was some success so fine and rare that when 

it happened it felt like a big amen? 

They must now remind self they shed their yoke? 

Is arrogance the aegis of their scute? 

I fathom no reward or pleasure gained 

from haughtiness itself. If not a source 

Of cheer then it's protection, resolute. 

Abide their snideness, smile and stay your course 

They belittle none... Worth is absolute. 

(c) Lawrencealot - April, 2012

Visual Template:

Melanesian Sonnet

Octet + Sestet
Generally Iambic Petameter
Volta at or following line 9
Rhyme scheme:  aabaaaba aababb
This is a form invented by Jose Rizal M. Reyes of the Philippines

JOSE wrote another which he intended to name Melanesian Wave which is only

different in presentation being three quatrains and a couplet.  It seems to me that

poets have always had the freedom to present their sonnets as the muse dictated they should.  I am not posting it therefore as a separate sonnet form.

Example Poem:

A Simple Flash!  (Melanesian Sonnet)


She thinks perhaps I dream of her at night
and miss her when she's somewhere out of sight.
She believes that some how I deserve respect
and am her thoughtful brave and charming knight.
She thinks it's fun to hike or fly a kite,
or read a poem and talk by candle light.
She speaks her mind, and shares her thoughts unchecked;
objections are not taken as a sleight.

Her figure's full, her teases do incite;
She thinks her cleavage flashed just might excite
and grins and smiles when I become erect,
my validation proving she was right.
She thinks she can have sex and my respect.
I know my lady surely is correct.



© Lawrencealot - October 30, 2012
This was written a parody of a Dalaney Poem




Visual Template:

Marshalline Sonnet

The Marshalline Sonnet form is created by: AP poet; Mairi bheag.  

Quatorzain - 9 syllable Line

Generally Volta at or following line 9

3 Quatrains + Couplet

Rhyme scheme:  abab cdcd efef gg

This is a wonderful form that allows us to use feminine words for end line rhymes. 

9 syllables per line with the following meter: 

iamb-iamb-iamb-amphibrach

Example Poem: 

Write a Marshalline Sonnet

To write a Marshalline type sonnet

beware that physical internal

daDUM (five times) repeated on it

won't fit into the Marshal's kernel.

The kosher form induces clatter

by truncating the pentameter

by half a foot so lines end flatter,

but longer still than tetrameter.

Just nine syllables emphasizing

the lines all ending somewhat tepid

with feminine rhyme, realizing

that women often are intrepid.

This rhyme, and syllables persisting

Is stuff of what this form's consisting.

© Lawrencealot - October 29,2012

Visual Template: