The Elements – Sonnet Cycles

Here is where I will keep my sonnets in my overly-ambitious quadruple sonnet cycle on the four classic elements.

A couple of notes on these cycles

• Each cycle is a Heroic Crown sonnet cycle.  That means that the final line of the first sonnet is the opening line for the second, etc., until sonnet number 14.  The final line of the 14th sonnet will echo the first line of the 1st sonnet.  The 15th sonnet of each cycle will be the first lines of the preceding 14 sonnets, in order.
• If you analyze these sonnets, you will notice that I utilize the Shakespearean sonnet rhyme scheme (ABAB,CDCD,EFEF,GG).  However, unlike a Shakespearean sonnet, I have chosen not to use iambic pentameter.  Instead, I am using what I choose to call “Decasyllabic Non-Metrical Form”.  In other words, each line is 10 syllables in length, but there is no set rhythm to stressed and unstressed syllables. I hope that this will give the poems a more “conversational” feel.
• I tend to use a lot of enjambment.  In other words, thoughts often spill from one line into the next.  If you are reading these out loud, pause at the end of thoughts rather than at the end of lines.  If you read one of these poems to someone else, and they don’t notice the rhyme scheme, then you’re probably reading it right!  (The exception to this will be the 15th sonnet of each cycle, as these will be more “one line/one thought” in format.
• If you’ve read this far on my “notes”, you’re either really bored by now, or you are really into poetic forms  🙂