Quote:
Originally Posted by CoolBec
Hence the "kinda"
You're of course technically correct. But the term "sonnet" has also come to be fairly generic in its contemporary usage, especially in an informal context.
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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.