View source for Curt Curtal Sonnet Corona

Curt Curtal Sonnet Corona 
Based on Sonnet Corona by Nick Montfort 
December 2020

Gerard Manley Hopkins invented the curtal sonnet, a 3/4 abbreviation of the Petrarchan sonnet in which each section of the form is proportionately shortened: the octave becomes a sestet, the sestet a quatrain with an extra tail.

In March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nick Montfort published “Sonnet Corona,” a tiny program that can generate a crown of 3^14 or 4,782,969 potential sonnets. Its 14 monometer lines evoke the enclosure and uncertainty of the early lockdown. “Curt Curtal Sonnet Corona” utilizes Montfort’s code to generate 4^11 or 4,194,304 curtal, 11-line sonnets with 4 variables per line. The abbreviated form felt appropriate to my feelings about this moment at the end of a very difficult year, but one illuminated by hope, as my son, due in January 2021, decided he couldn’t wait and joined our family in the final weeks of December. "Curt Curtal Sonnet Corona" is dedicated to Dorothea and Dashiell. The generator is available at [http://amaranthborsuk.com/curtalcorona/ amaranthborsuk.com/curtalcorona].

Sample poems:

1. 
we ask 
in mind 
one shot 
a dash 
deadlines 
for naught

so long 
we sigh 
fine wrought 
our hope— 
starbright . starbrought

2. 
we thrash 
resigned 
uncaught 
held fast 
fault lines 
drawn taut

so long 
entwined 
one thought 
keep on— 
our light . our lot

3. 
we thrash 
still blind 
a dot 
at last 
headlines 
in knots

headstrong 
we sigh 
unknot 
our hope— 
forthright . forethought

4. 
we ask 
resigned 
a dot 
a dash 
deadlines 
drawn taut

heartstrung 
we sigh 
unknot 
new song— 
our light . our lot

(Source: Author's abstract)