Assignment Five: the Formal Poem

ASSIGNMENT FIVE: THE FORMAL POEM

MOLBERG: ENGL 3150

Due Monday, 4/7

This is the first and only assignment in this course in which I will ask you to stick close to “the rules.” Mary Oliver reminds us that a great dancer knows the rules of the dance, and in order to successfully break or bend these rules, that dancer must practice. Though the process of writing in form can be challenging and sometimes frustrating, it is a way of exercising a muscle which, if trained and flexed, will strengthen your free verse poetry.

For this assignment, choose one of the forms outlined in our course packet entitled “form” (Petrarchan sonnet, Shakespearean sonnet, villanelle or sestina). I have provided you with many examples of each form. For further reading, see the anthology section of Rules of the Dance. Follow closely the requirements of your chosen form. If the form calls for meter, use meter; if it calls for rhyme, use rhyme. You may choose to utilize techniques like enjambment, caesura and slant rhyme to give yourself a break from stilted verse, though these techniques are not required.

The best thing you can do in preparation for this assignment is to read voraciously. If the examples I have given you aren’t enough, check out poets.org, and search your chosen form. This site provides many helpful examples, old and new.

Finally, the most important and productive step of this assignment: revise, revise, revise. Read your poem aloud and revise some more. If taking on the challenge of writing a poem in form seems daunting, practice first. Try writing a few singular lines in iambic pentameter, or make a word bank of rhyming words (or words that utilize slant rhyme) that you enjoy. This poem itself is practice. It need not be perfect—we’ll make use of workshop in order to hone the poem. Have fun. Writing in form will open new worlds of language.