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Armstrong has teamed up with the Great River Shakespeare Festival for what could be Winona’s first-ever sonnet contest. The event kicks off with a sonnet writing workshop by Armstrong and GRSF founding company member Doug Scholz-Carlson at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Bookshelf. Both will recite sonnets, speak of their basic structure and demonstrate how to write a sonnet.
“One good thing about it is it’s short,” Armstrong said. “It’s a little argument between the heart and the head in 14 lines.”
A sonnet can contain quatrains, meaning four lines that rhyme, or a tercet, three lines that rhyme. It can also finish with a rhyming couplet. Blank sonnets often have the rhyme contained within the line.
“The thing about a sonnet is you can either be a stickler about the rules or care more about the essence of the sonnet,” Armstrong said.
Most sonnets involve contradiction, and early sonnets were about unrequited love. Sonnets have grown more diverse in structure and subject since first originating in 13th century Italy.
Armstrong suggests reading lots of sonnets before writing, to feel the rhythm
of how they’re structured.
He recommends Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Keats, William Wordsworth, Robert Frost and E.E. Cummings.
Armstrong says it’s best not to use obvious rhymes, such as love and dove. Instead, he says, try rhyming love with enough.
The sonnet contest will coincide with the end of the Great River Shakespeare Festival on July 27. Prizes will include a copy of “Shakespeare’s Sonnets” and a bottle of wine.
Armstrong compares writing a sonnet to a game in which the writer figures out how to fit everything together in 14 lines.
“Thinking is enjoyable. That’s what the sonnet is trying to tell us,” Armstrong said. “Thinking is fun.”
Contact Käri Knutson at kknutson@winonadailynews.com or (507) 453-3523.
