Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry The Sonnet Sonnet Comparison Chart
A Stretched Sonnet is any poem that has the sound and feel of a sonnet but stretches the boundaries of frame and meter. With this definition, you might say all sonnet variations created after the Sicilian Sonnet might loosely be called Stretched Sonnets, but commonly the term Stretched Sonnet refers to poems that are slightly out of sync with the formal guidelines of the sonnet's 14 lines and iambic pentameter yet still have the sound of a lyrical meditation.
In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz by Wil