Meter in poetry Iamb – combination (called a foot) of one unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable. Pentameter – a line of poetry with five feet.

Rules of a sonnet Iambic pentameter – ten syllables in each line, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed, pattern. Rhyme Scheme – (Shakespearian sonnet) A,B,A,B, C,D,C,D, E,F,E,F, G,G

Learning to Write a Sonnet by Denise Rodgers The sonnet form is old and full of dust And yet I want to learn to write one well. To learn new forms and grow is quite a must, But I will learn it quickly, I can tell. And so I sit, today, with pen in hand, Composing three new quatrains with a rhyme. The rhythm flows like wind at my command. The A-B-A-B form consumes my time. But I’m not done until there’s fourteen lines. One ending couplet, after three quatrains. I’ve tried to write this new form several times. The effort’s huge; I have to rack my brain. But I persist, my fourteen lines now done. I wrote my poem; my sonnet work is won.

A Toast to Toast by Gideon O. Burton Of all the snacks that beckon in the night When tummies growl and gnawing hunger calls, But one can satisfy my famished plight And summons me to stumble through the halls. Oh piece of bread, so humble in your slice What magic turns your skin from white to brown? What arrogant aromas do entice When toaster pops and butter coats you down! With cinnamon and sugar or with jam I dress you in the ornaments of sweet More sated, I, than proverb's happy clam When crispy, hot and warm my lips you meet. Of every night-time treat you are the most I honor you, great food, whose name is toast.

Mucus by Gideon O. Burton Lugubrious and patient as he slimes His dark and viscous weight within my head. He tugs his bitter taffy mass in crimes Of pressured pain and dripping dread. A hundred tissues bruised with blasting blows, And yet he lingers, stranding strands of crust; Gelatinous stalactites, grainy flow, Replacing brains with miles of muck and must. In sour thickness smears my throat and lungs, His wiggling jelly clogs each passageway– I cough up gooey golf balls on my tongue; In rasping pleas my alveoli pray. My phlegmy enemy, you shall not run: With antihistamines I end your fun.

Write a quatrain 1.Start with a statement about your topic, don’t worry about meter, yet. 2.Start a second line. Make another statement, but don’t let it rhyme with the first line. 3.Write your third line, make it rhyme with line 1 4.Write your fourth line, make it rhyme with line 2 5.Go back and fill in or delete words to make sure you have 10 syllables in each line. 6.You’ve completed a quatrain! 7.(optional) Write three quatrains and one couplet to complete your sonnet.