Curtal or Curtailed Sonnet

[Tinker]

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The Sonnet
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Curtal or Curtailed Sonnet is a Petrarchan Sonnet which is proportionately ¾ in size. It is a 19th century innovation by English poet Gerard Anthony Hopkins who prefaced his publication Poems (1918) with an explanation of the verse form which he used in 3 of his sonnets.

The elements of the Curtal sonnet is:

1. 11 lines, proportionately ¾ of a Petrarchan Sonnet structure, a sixain followed by a quatrain followed by a tail or half line.
2. metered, L1-L10 iambic pentameter , L11 is trimeter.
3. rhymed, rhyme scheme abcabc defde.

   Peace by Gerard Manley Hopkins
   
   Curtal Sonnet by Judi Van Gorder
   
   For centuries the sonnet held esteem
   with praise for Laura, Juliette and more,
   the lute has even taken up its place.
   Without effort rising up like cream
   the little song can touch us at the core
   with oven birds and stars that race.
   
   This shortened form has little time to waste
   with condensed rhyme and shorter line
   to finish off the tome without refrain.
   And so, I try to write this poem in haste
   and hope to make it shine.