favorite sonnet (haiku, or poem of another form?)

[devohoneybee]

I'm winding up to teach my annual poetry-writing workshop, and thought I'd do a bit on form and how form informs/expresses content. A very *light* touch on the topic, as the workshop is mostly not didactic.

To that end, does anyone have a particular favorite of a particular poetic form, one that gives a sense of why that poem HAD to be a sonnet, or haiku, or whatever it is?

thanks muchly!

Comments

[brightfame]

An Indian friend of mine introduced me to ghazals. They were in Urdu, and we did not honour the form for the translation, so I can't give you any of my favourites that will be useful, but I do think this English ghazal is a good example of the form.

Disclaimer: I don't 'do' poetry seriously, so this is all from a layperson's point of view!

[dragonfly]

Interesting topic!

Uh, I got nothing. But I'll think about it some more.

[dragonfly]

Well, it's not exactly good poetry, but if what you want to do is tell a story, doesn't the ballad form kind of cry out for it?

I'm thinking of The Ballad of Gilligan's Island.

Okay, probably not what you're looking for. *g*