Sonnets have taken various forms and used different rhyming patterns as they evolved from their Italian origin. The form I use requires a total of 14 lines, each line containing 10 syllables, and the last 2 lines rhyme.
It's almost like a puzzle; a word puzzle with purpose. Shakespeare wrote a bunch of them, and they're worth checking out.
Here's one written in the late 1840's, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand
Henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore
Alone upon the threshold of my door
Of individual life, I shall command
The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand
Serenely in the sunshine as before,
Without the sense of that which I forebore,...
Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land
Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine
With pulses that beat double. What I do
And what I dream include thee, as the wine
Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue
God for myself, He hears that name of thine,
And sees within my eyes, the tears of two.
And, from 2013, one of mine (which fails the 10 syllable requirement)
Reading it now, I curiously have no recollection what inspired it...
New Leaf ?
She needs no substitute love tonight
To back-fill bloodied trenches of lost wars,
To paw the frozen snow for something bright;
Tonight the cup of empty she ignores.
I don't know exactly when it happened,
When the bloated stories lost their appeal;
From her moist neck she's pulled the soiled napkin,
Gorged with gorgeous sweet puffs of nothing real.
This is her chance to grab at your lifeline
While burying what might have been;
Within sleeps the luster, dreams undefined
Calling for nurture of just such a friend.
The cherry blossoms must litter the earth
Before the summer's harvest reveals their worth.
Here's one called "My Love Is":
My love is like a raisin on a rug;
If you truly care please watch where you step!
Bend down and free me with your gentle tug
Because I'm stuck here from the tears I've wept.
My love is like your pillow on my bed,
So soft and warm yet smelling different
And offering me sweet comfort instead
Of insecurity and discontent.
My love is like valuable blue lint,
So ordinary to everyone else.
A whisper in complete darkness you'd sent
I heard across a universe of yells.
My love is a long journey with a smile:
Familiar arm around me for awhile.
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