An Evening of Student Sonnets | Thomas More College

An Evening of Student Sonnets

 

By Ella Fordyce, Class of 2019

Students and faculty alike gathered in the Library on Wednesday, April 11 to hear the members of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts Class of 2019 recite their own original sonnets. The composition and recitation of these sonnets was an assignment for the junior’s Writing Tutorial III class. While some colleges may be content to have their students master only the academic paper, the curriculum at TMC demands further writing skills. Throughout their writing tutorials, students must try their hands at writing orations, memoirs, short stories, and sonnets.

The juniors prepared for the composition of their sonnets by studying those of the masters, including Petrarch, Wyatt, Shakespeare, Donne, Herbert, Milton, Wordsworth, and Hopkins. With the guidance of Visiting Fellow Mr. Andrew Thompson-Briggs, the students performed a series of explications de texte on the sonnets, going line-by-line to examine the meter, rhyme, and various poetic devices. Next, the students did a direct imitation of one of the sonnets, to become more familiar with the form. Finally the students were left to their own poetic devices as the time came for them to write their own sonnets.

Each sonnet had to be written in the usual form; that is, each one had to have 14 lines of 10 syllables each, with iambic pentameter the standard meter, and one of the various traditional rhyme schemes. But within the form the subject matter could—and did—differ greatly. Miss Evangeline Soutsos drew inspiration from Visiting Fellow Dr. Patrick Powers’ De Anima class, writing her sonnet on the nature and function of the soul. Mr. Clark Ingram gave tribute to the late poet Richard Wilbur by quoting the title of Wilbur’s “Love Calls Us to the Thing of This World.” In her sonnet, Miss Brigette Nelson paid homage to the most famous English sonneteer, William Shakespeare.

Their sonnets composed, the juniors put on their finery and assembled in the Scholars’ Lounge to deliver their poems. Mr. Thompson-Briggs opened the ceremonies with a short speech extolling the virtues of an ancient custom: laughing. The audience soon engaged in this practice as they listened to the humorous sonnet of Mr. Justin Lafata, Class of 2019, in which he bemoaned the tragic immolation of his car. Other sonnets, however, were of a more serious tone; the audience listened attentively as Mr. Jeremiah Gallagher, Class of 2019, recited a sonnet on the disparity between God’s perfection and man’s sinfulness. Silly and serious alike, the sonnets were soon completed, and the audience partook in another ancient custom: clapping.

After the completion of Writing Tutorial III, students at TMC will likely never have to write another sonnet. The real value of learning to write a sonnet, however, lies not the subsequent ability to write a sonnet, but rather the subsequent ability to read a sonnet. Having written their own, the students now know the work and detail that goes into a sonnet. When reading the sonnets of the masters, the students will be better able to recognize the intricacy of the meter, the complexity of the rhyme, and the hidden depth of meaning. Further, should the need ever arise to write a romantic sonnet, the students of TMC are better equipped than most.

 

For further reading:

The Student as “Makar”: Original Poetry by the Junior Class

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