Curt Curtal Sonnet Corona Based on Sonnet Corona by Nick Montfort December 2020

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)

Curt Curtal Sonnet Corona

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