Curt Curtal Sonnet Corona

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 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)