The Game of Sonnets

Welcome to the Game of Sonnets!!
I'm your host, Kalon Ordona II.
Well, what are we waiting for? Let's play some Sonnets! :bball:

How to Play:

We start with 14 words, following the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean Sonnet (though other forms of sonnet would also work): ABABCDCDEFEFGG. The next person to post then writes a sonnet using the words provided at the end of each line. It's tricky, good exercise, and often very, very hilarious. The challenge is to try to make sense of it.

For those who may not remember, or have never known, a Shakespearean sonnet is a 14 line poem written in Iambic Pentameter, with the rhyme scheme given above. This sounds much more intimidating than it actually is. Iambic pentameter just means that every line has 10 syllables, and theoretically the stresses fall on the even numbered syllables.
In other words: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM.

Sonnet Game Samples:
Courtesy of Everything2.com

Here are a few sonnets taken from Sonnet Game sessions:

Sonnet 1: Divorce
words: fickle sheaf sickle 'neath queue graft rue laugh minor wait finer sate hardest harvest

When love (so often) grows sour and fickle
And lawyers serve a thick and sorry sheaf
Gavels come to stand more as a sickle
Property usurps heart's domain from 'neath
Children! when you stand in Hizzoner's queue
You ne'er forget a small token of graft
Else promptly you shall have a cause to rue
And watch old lover laugh and laugh and laugh
If a bribe to you seems all too minor
You merely have a more difficult wait
Rewards due are richer and the finer
For true wounds only time can bring to sate
Ex-lover's pain must surely be the hardest
So why do lawyers reap all the harvest?

Sonnet 2: Love
Words: flush corpse lush Norse Thor taboo sore Baboo pillow schnoz minnow laws roseate pearly gate

Within his cheeks there bloomed a vivid flush
On glimpsing what he'd gleened to be a corpse
The grasses round grew thick and green and lush
And Odin gazed upon his lover Norse
With strength and vigor bestowed on him by Thor
He consumated this love quite taboo
And though assured the prone one would be sore
He took him thrice, whisp'ring "My sweet Baboo"
With decorated shield he made a makeshift pillow
On which he placed the viking's chopped-off schnoz
And resting there, his heart swimmed like a minnow
In penitence, and reviewing Viking laws
Then with his sword from sheath stained black and roseate
Od'n cut his path to Norseman's pearly gate

Sonnet 3: The Hero
Words: town drink down think loss kilt cross hilt muse debunk abuse drunk blow go

Afore I landed in this lumber town
I prayed myself a welcome place to drink
East and West across, North, South, Up and Down
I sat myself aside a lass to think
A win to wait, to wait a thing of loss
I thought upon my seat spread wide with kilt
The maiden fair whose path was mine to cross
Looked fondly on my hand, wrapped round the hilt
She eyed me as if she were once my muse
And all my petty trials she would debunk
My sense of wanderlust she did abuse
And filled me with a harmful kind of drunk
I dealt her then at once a fatal blow!
And to the arbor, sanguine, I did go

===========================================

Righty-ho, I'll come up with the first topic and set of fourteen words.
Someone make a sonnet out of it, and then post another topic and set of words.
The next person, in addition to making their own sonnet, should also rate the sonnet above them!

Give ratings for:
Sense,
Rhythm,
and Laughs

The challenge is to make make sense with the words and fit the Iambic Pentameter, and if done right it's usually very witty.

Aaaaaaalrighty everyone! Are... you... READEH !?
Here we go!

Topic: none (Story Time! I'll be nice the first time and pick words that make sense in progression. It's more funny to be random, though, and still try to make sense of it. xD)
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG (You can make up your own if you like; doesn't have to be a Shakespearean Sonnet)
Word Set: sort, spears, fort, hears, gate, road, slate, load, beast, fight, east, flight, slay, day.

No one else did it so...I'll have a go. I hope I did it right. The rhythm was definitely off...

She had not ever been the fighting sort,
but when her love was taken down by spears,
she had set out to find the evil fort,
whispered warnings of death only she hears.
She came upon the mangled broken gate,
at the end of a long and winding road,
the walls were made of dark crumbling slate,
the roof caving them in - a heavy load.
Within the walls there sat a kingly beast,
who was ready to take on such a fight,
and so she fled away into the east,
alas it was a short and dreadful flight.
He came upon her, and oh! he did slay,
A harrowing end to a tragic day.



Topic: none
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Word Set: class, fun, brass, sun, cake, toad, bake, load, free, chess, glee, less, chant, rant.

Whoa, cool, Ryona!
You're right, the rhythm was off. It can be pretty tough to find words that will work with your story AND fit the rhythm.

I'll give you 9/10 for Sense,
but at the cost of 5/10 for Rhythm, since 7/14 lines matched.
As for Laughs, I'll call them Chills, and give you 8/10.

9 + 5 + 8 = 23
23/30. Well done, especially for our first time!

Alrighty, my turn. ^_^

---

This morning, when I came to music class,
I came prepared to have a lot of fun.
A mini orchestra with strings and brass
and drums is what we're like, beneath the sun
or in an auditorium with cake.
My mates and I still play like croaking toads,
but we're okay with that. Sometimes we bake
some treats for after practicing, or load
a basket full of picnic foods. We're free
to play a game or two, as well, like chess,
or other things like basketball. It's glee
to spend my time with friends, with less
to think about besides a song or chant.
So that is all about my class. [/endrant]

---

that was fun! I didn't do a very good job, though, since I didn't think it through beforehand. I just went with it; that's why the sentences are all screwy in there.

Anyway, here's the next one!

Topic: FOG
Rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Word Set: mist swirls kissed curls most tree ghost me depths scoffed steps soft dialogue fog

I'll give you 8/10 for Sense,
7/10 for Rhythm...Personally, it was hard for me to read it as a sonnet, but it was still good.
8/10 for laughs.
So that would be... 8+7+8= 23

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One autumn night, from out the mist
And fog that rose in swirls.
Star crossed lovers met and kissed.
His hair of blond, and hers with curls.
That darling girl, he loved the most.
More than the summer sun and willow tree.
But now he's gone; he's but a ghost.
I know this for that girl was Me.
I searched around the forest depths.
'He's gone forever,' the wise ones scoffed.
'But follow us, dear, up the steps,
And you'll see his face so soft.'
And so we hugged and kissed and had a lengthy dialogue.
And once again, my dear lover disappeared into the fog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Er...I'm not quite sure how well that came out...It sounded alright in my head, but who knows when it's written out...


Topic: Uh, seasons? Anything, really.
Rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Word Set: Know, chill, snow, real, spring, rain, ring, brain, hot, tan, caught, man, right, night.

Iambic pentameter flows thus: - ' - ' - ' - ' - '
Where the ' is the stressed syllable.
Only one line: "More than the summer sun and willow tree," barely matches. (You have to read the 'than' with stress, which sounds funny.)
You do have several good lines of Iambic tetrameter, but that's still 4/5.

It made good Sense, so I'll give it 10/10,
But many of the lines weren't rhythmic, and the ones that were fell short of the Sonnet's pentameter. So, 2/10 for Rhythm.
Instead of Laughs, I'll say Story Quality, and give you 7/10 (not 10 because it had little to do with the assigned topic).

10 + 2 + 7 = 19

It's a pretty poem, but it's not about FOG, and it's not a sonnet.

Alrighty, here's mine, from your word-set.

---

The falling leaf of Autumn helps us know
That Winter comes. Prepares us for the chill.
When gardens sleep beneath a sheet of snow,
Then comes the tale of Autumn, all too real.
But death in Winter turns to life in Spring;
The chilling snow is turned to singing rain.
When creatures roam and plants in freedom ring;
Then homes awake with children on the brain.
With planting done, the days must soon grow hot.
The sun makes green the crops and humans tan.
When Summer shines and boasts at what it's caught,
Then seasons' turning warms the hearts of man.
From death to life to love, from wrong to right,
The seasons teach, while day flows into night.

---

A lot better than my last one, I hope.