STREET SONNET

slightly adapted from Matthew Rohrer

 

  1. Take a fourteen block walk. For each block, you will write one line. You might want to choose a neighborhood you arenā€™t familiar with.

 

  1. Keep your eyes peeled for language: the poem must contain 3 words or phrases that you see on your walk (on the side of a building, a sign, license plate, bumper sticker, something inside a store, etc.).

 

  1. The poem should contain 3 bits of overheard language (scraps of conversation, etc.). Try your best to do this in the spirit of the Lyrical Balladsā€” i.e.: listen in on any dockworkers, coal miners, cab drivers, the forsaken, the travelers, etc. that you happen to pass. In other words, try to get the ā€œcommon peopleā€ into your poem.

 

  1. Before starting, google the name of the neighborhood in which youā€™ll be walking. Take the title of your poem from a website that comes up on your search.

 

  1. You thought you were getting off easy! However, your poem should strive toward iambic pentameter (which for our purposes here is 10-syllable lines). You donā€™t have to rhyme, but if you want to try a Shakespearean or Petrarchan rhyme scheme, go for it!

POST HERE!