50 Sonnets

A ‘sonnet’ is a structure of poetry that originated in Italy. The term sonnet is actually derives from the Italian word sonetto, which means ‘little song’ or ‘little sound’. A Sicilian poet named Giacomo da Lentini is endorsed by many as its inventor. Sonnets are commonly 14 lines long and carry a distinct model of rhymes that varies from one culture to another.

While I have concocted many different forms of poetry over the last twenty plus years I’ve been writing, for some reason I always come back to the sonnet. People and other poets tend to criticize sonnets for being so restrictive and having all those rules, but it’s unwarranted. It’s those very rules that create the challenge, a lyrical gauntlet that makes the sonnet the bad ass of poetry that it is.

The truth is anyone can construct a ‘free flowing’ poem but not every writer can compose a sonnet.