sherlock60 | Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Missing Three-Quarter

Welcome once again to my poetry page!

I hope each week you will read Dr. Watson’s delightful narrative and then be inspired to write a poem related to it in some way. All forms of poetry are permitted, and further down the page there is a selection you might like to consider using over the coming weeks.

This week my featured form is the curtal sonnet.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica gives this definition:

a curtailed or contracted sonnet. It refers specifically to a sonnet of 11 lines rhyming abcabc dcbdc or abcabc dbcdc with the last line a tail, or half a line. The term was used by Gerard Manley Hopkins to describe the form that he used in such poems as Pied Beauty and Peace.

Some further information (thank you to Wikipedia):

The curtal sonnet is three-quarters of the structure of the Petrarchan sonnet: the octave of the sonnet becomes a sestet, and the sestet of the sonnet becomes four and a half lines.

In Pied Beauty Father Hopkins (any relation? I must ask the inspector…) uses the rhyme scheme abcabc dbcdc, and in Peace he uses abcabc dcbdc. However, I have also seen suggested elsewhere the schemes abcabc defde and abcabc dbede. So please use whichever version you prefer.

Incidentally, I was a little busy this week and I asked Mrs. Turner if she would not mind writing the poem for me.

I can only apologise.

Here is the example poem:

Watson said, “I was making a forward pass
“And then we put the tackle to the test.
“That’s why I was prostrate with Lestrade nearby.”
“And I too was conducting a rugby class,”
Said Holmes. “We then both needed a rest
“And so we lay on my bed, Hopkins and I.”

Mrs. Hudson gave a most amused snort
Her initial reply was swiftly suppressed.
Instead she said sweetly, “Is that not a lie?
“It wasn’t rugby; it was some other sport.
“But nice try.”

As always, this is simply something to consider for the future. Any form of poetry is welcome this week—and every week! Here are a few suggestions for you:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, blackout poetry, blues stanza, call and response, chastushka, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, concrete poetry, curtal sonnet, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, englyn, epigram, epulaeryu, fable, found poetry, ghazal, haiku, kennings poem, lanturne, limerick, lyric poetry, palindrome poetry, pantoum, poem cycle, renga, riddle, rime couée, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, sonnet, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triolet, tyburn, villanelle

Please leave all your poems inspired by The Missing Three-Quarter in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!

Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson