To think that writing a sonnet is unrealistic for Year 8 homework?

[Orlando]

I have a degree in English (admittedly from 150 years ago) and my work is centred around writing, but I'd find this pretty much impossible. It has to be romantic, apparently. And done by tomorrow. AIBU to think it's just offputtingly difficult for 12-13 year olds?

If they're doing Romeo and Juliet, they may well have covered it more thoroughly in class than you think - Romeo and Juliet have a shared sonnet when they first meet in Act I Scene V.

Romeo:
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Juliet:
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

Romeo:
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

Juliet:
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

Romeo:
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray — grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

Juliet:
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

Romeo:
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.

An English teacher's life is full of woe;
From bell to bell they swim against a tide
Of Shakespeare-haters, those who cry "oh no!"
At novels, those who can't abide
To read, nor write, nor speak a single word -
In short, they love to read, yet love alone.
Classes find their every task absurd,
And in every planner, lo, a parent's moan.
If only they could show pupils the trove
Of literature, of rhyme, of artful song,
Acquired through a lifetime's love
Of letters, and in one's heart carried along.
But alas, we must obey our master Gove,
And know a teacher's place is in the wrong.

Brian!!!

For English literature I did-

Macbeth
A Tale of Two Cities
The Importance of Being Earnest

Meh

Yep, and the prologue is a sonnet too.

I set a sonnet task for my year 8s each year when we study poetry - they can all have a good go at it! Generally they find the fact that there are set 'rules' to follow easier than if they can choose their own structure, though only the most able really get the word placement to ensure the iamb stresses are the most effective.

To me a sonnet is a wondrous thing,
That all can try to great or less extent.
Not every one will have iambic ring,
But try your best and I will be content.
Ten syllables you need for every line,
The quatrain each should rhyme ABAB,
With three of these your sonnet will be fine,
The rhyming couplet ends your poem of glee.
So choose the thing you love most of all,
Oh whether it be serious or fun,
Like Mum or Dad or even just football,
Which sets your heart to glow just like the sun.
For what you love deserves your careful thought,
Or risk your sonnet being all for nought.

Blimey, you lot are AMAZING. Mind you, so is my dd (not dad, as autocorrect would have it in previous post) who has also written a blooming impressive sonnet. Am shamed by my U-ness and humbled by the genius of mn

Well done your DD!

Go on and give it a go, Orlando. Sonnets are lots of fun to write!

Definitely give it a try - note down the rules, see if something 'hooks' you and go and play with words.

And congrats to your DD too.

I think this must be a Y8 task - DS has to do one too. Although he missed the lesson playing in a school match and didn't know it was a sonnet...

I will be using all useful ideas above if when he starts moaning on Sunday evening

FGS DS2 is Year 7. May tell him to start on his Sonnet now.

Sparkling, that's a good plan! And make sure he knows it has to be romantic. And about unrequited love and angst and all that

DS is a carbon copy of DH. Sonnets and romance aren't remotely on the radar!

Brian I love your sonnet and I just want to say that thanks to my fabulous English teacher I'm now a writer (and part time poet) so some of it goes in

I think a sonnet is fine. DD1 had to do a ballad in Y7, so a sonnet in Y8 sounds appropriate.

Actually Wilson really loved yours - was funny and tender all at the same time. Just fab. We are such a talented bunch of vipers.

Sonnets do not 'have to be romantic'. It is a structure, within which the poet can write about anything s/he likes.

I agree, motherinferior - I once wrote a sonnet to go with a present for my sister's horse. It was about apples. (It's part of the Sinterklaas tradition in Holland not to label who a present is from but to write a poem to go with it instead, sending up the recipient in a friendly way).

I like structured poems and have written many to our IT department, every time they have implemented (badly) another major system change. It's fun.

And frankly 'An expense of spirit in a waste of shame' is one of the least romantic poems out...

The Glasgow sonnets are amazing and not romantic. Although romantic sonnets are a recognised form so it's fine to give one as homework I think.

Thanks pointy

just had to go and look them up only one is readily available on the internet but it's a series of ten. Amazing.

He rhymes mattresses/fortresses/buttresses and mistresses. That's some cojones.

I gave my class a sonnet by Kevin Halligan about a cockroach today

Craig Raine wrote a sonnet to an arsehole. I'm not sure if it's romantic or not.

LRD, I have loved many an arsehole...

I did once think of writing a C&W song called 'He was my high-fibre lover/he was just passin' through'....

I find myself quite glad you didn't write that ...