How to Write a Sonnet

Traditional

PureInsight | January 14, 2007

[PureInsight.org]

Start with good posture, control of the breath

Next calm the mind and all morbid intent

Give up all pursuit of fame after death

Ask only your pen, to true thoughts be lent

Then start to write on whatever you dream

Mind the meter - unstressed, stressed - and the rhyme

Each line has ten beats, the lines are fourteen

Practice makes perfect, the skill comes in time

Don't look at others, this work is your own

Study the masters and always the Law

With this and endurance, skill can be honed

Write for the people, with purpose and awe
   But without great Truth, 'tis not yet sublime
   Poems are more than mere meter and rhyme


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