The American Scholar's Crowd-Sourced Sonnet: Looking for Line 10!

On Tuesday, May 6, The American Scholar launched a website experiment in writing crowd-sourced poetry—in this case, a Shakespearean sonnet. David Lehman supplied the first line and picks subsequent lines from reader submissions.  If you would like to enter, you must submit your line on the American Scholar site here.

Here is the sonnet to date:

How like a prison is my cubicle,

And yet how far my mind can freely roam

From gaol to Jerusalem, Hell to home.

Freedom ends or starts with a funeral.

Say what must die inside that I may not

Cast down this die and cross the Rubicon

Thence to the true hell: the heat of Tucson

Where drug lords blaze loads of coke, meth, and pot.

Freedom starts, or ends, with a funeral,

---

Line eight was suggested by Diana (no last name given): “Where drug lords blaze loads of coke, meth, and pot.” I like the way the line rubs our nose into a harsh reality. The succession of ten monosyllables and the strong alliteration of “r” and “l” sounds in the first part of the line clinch the deal. The line sounds a conclusive note to the first eight lines of our sonnet whether we take them as one block or as two four-line stanzas.

Continue reading and enter your line here.

Comments

[Maureen]

For whatever the reason, I haven't been able to log into Disqus.

Here's my line:

A body in its natural crucible, ash to ash, inscrutable

[Stacey]

Maureen, You have to post your line on the American Scholar page, not here. Follow either of the links above to get there. Good luck! Stacey

[Grumpy Pedant]

This isn't a Shakespearean sonnet.It *was* Petrarchan, until line nine repeated the rhyme from line one.

Well done, American Scholar! You've certainly lived up to your name!

[Grumpy Pedant]

(Actually, it isn't even strictly Petrarchan, since a Petrarchan sonnet's octave would rhyme abbaabba, and yours rhymes abbacddc, but I'll let that one slide.)

[Ronald Bellin]

Speaking of "living up to your name," you certainly do that, Grumpy Pedant. Cheers!