Dr. Boo Bear

Uh, no it hasn't. A sonnet has a very precise definition. Look it up. I can call a dog an elephant but that still doesn't make it so. Even if the "informal context" you're referring to is a free-verse sonnet, which is called a sonnetoid, the very basic component is 14 lines.

People tend to believe that poetry is just a willy-nilly construct since they've heard, somewhere, from the preface to Lyrical Ballads that poetry was the "spontaneous overflow of emotion recollected in tranquility," as though no craft or technique or thought was ever put into a piece of writing. I mean, that's probably true for bad poetry, but good poetry is not just words thrown down on a page (not suggesting that yours is of this ilk).

I teach literature and I'm very frustrated with my student coming out of high school believing that there are no rules to poetry. There are.

CoolBec

^ I don't have to look it up, I know full well what a sonnet is thank you very much. As I've said, I was using the term in a very generic and informal context, so we'll just have to agree to disagree...m'kay?!

(Btw...I also call all copier machines Xerox's, which is also technically incorrect)

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Dr. Boo Bear

If you did, you wouldn't be calling your poem a sonnet then, now would you?

I call all facial tissue "Kleenex" and all cotton swabs "Q-tips" too. But when a brand name becomes completely synonymous with an entire product type is hardly the same as just calling something by the wrong name. If I called a villanelle a sonnet, it would be wrong.

CoolBec

Hey...dude!! I know what a freekin sonnet is just as well as you do!!!!

I acknowledged that you were correct and that my usage was technically incorrect and my reasons for said usage! Twice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now how bout you pull your fukin panties out of your g'dam a$$ crack and go use someone else's journal to try to impress us with your self-perceived superior knowledge!!!!

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Drak

CoolBec, do you do any songwriting? Or just poetry? Just curious...

CoolBec

Just poetry Drak. I've never really tried, but I think to do song lyrics I'd have to have some music first.

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Drak

I always write lyrics before music. You should give it a shot.