Spenserian Sonnet Challenge
Poetry Contest
The topic for this poetry contest is: Unrequited Love.
Write a poem that somehow incorporates the topic. The poem does not have to be specifically about the topic and creative approaches are welcomed. But contest voters will be asked to consider the topic when making a choice for a winner.
This Contest requires you to write a Spenserian sonnet. This is a variation of the Shakespearean sonnet. A Spenserian sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet but there is a twist where you employ linking rhymes between the quatrains. That would conclude the rhyme pattern to: A,B,A,B-B,C,B,C-C,D,C,D-E,E. This form does require iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter follows the meter with the emphasis in the second syllable: da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, five counts per line.
Here is a lovely example by its inventor:
Amoretti: Sonnet 34
Lyke as a ship that through the Ocean wyde,
By conduct of some star doth make her way,
Whenas a storme hath dimd her trusty guyde,
Out of her course doth wander far astray:
So I whose star, that wont with her bright ray
Me to direct, with cloudes is overcast,
Doe wander now in darknesse and dismay,
Through hidden perils round about me plast.
Yet hope I well, that when this storme is past
My Helice the lodestar of my lyfe
Will shine again, and looke on me at last,
With lovely light to cleare my cloudy grief.
Till then I wonder carefull comfortlesse,
In secret sorrow and sad pensivenesse.
~Edmund Spenser~
The contest winner will win half of the prize pool which is based on the number of entries. The second and third place winners will each share the remaining prize pool. The prize pool is currently 55.00 member dollars. There are 7 spots still open. If all open spots are used the prize pool will be 90.00 member dollars. In this contest at least 2 submissions must be made for the vote to begin.
Deadline: Contest is closed. Deadline was Sunday, December 14, 2008.
Full Contest Listing
Write a poem that somehow incorporates the topic. The poem does not have to be specifically about the topic and creative approaches are welcomed. But contest voters will be asked to consider the topic when making a choice for a winner.
This Contest requires you to write a Spenserian sonnet. This is a variation of the Shakespearean sonnet. A Spenserian sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet but there is a twist where you employ linking rhymes between the quatrains. That would conclude the rhyme pattern to: A,B,A,B-B,C,B,C-C,D,C,D-E,E. This form does require iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter follows the meter with the emphasis in the second syllable: da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, five counts per line.
Here is a lovely example by its inventor:
Amoretti: Sonnet 34
Lyke as a ship that through the Ocean wyde,
By conduct of some star doth make her way,
Whenas a storme hath dimd her trusty guyde,
Out of her course doth wander far astray:
So I whose star, that wont with her bright ray
Me to direct, with cloudes is overcast,
Doe wander now in darknesse and dismay,
Through hidden perils round about me plast.
Yet hope I well, that when this storme is past
My Helice the lodestar of my lyfe
Will shine again, and looke on me at last,
With lovely light to cleare my cloudy grief.
Till then I wonder carefull comfortlesse,
In secret sorrow and sad pensivenesse.
~Edmund Spenser~
The contest winner will win half of the prize pool which is based on the number of entries. The second and third place winners will each share the remaining prize pool. The prize pool is currently 55.00 member dollars. There are 7 spots still open. If all open spots are used the prize pool will be 90.00 member dollars. In this contest at least 2 submissions must be made for the vote to begin.
Deadline: Contest is closed. Deadline was Sunday, December 14, 2008.
