Transitive Sonnet Notes

Created by: Larry Eberhart
Structure: Couplet, tercet, quatrain, tercet, and a couplet
Meter: 8 to 13 syllable lines,
Rhyme Scheme: aa bbb cccc bbb aa

Example

Child by Mary Sullivan Boren

I’m saving treasures in a dresser drawer:
a diaper pin, the little shoes you wore

with jingles in the laces, a barrette
still clasping strands of wispy hair. They whet
my hankering for things I can’t forget.

Before our paths converged, I held a view
of easy, unobstructed passage through
the challenges of motherhood. I knew
exactly what to do at twenty-two.

But that was long before my stumbling feet
were pressed into the coals, the searing heat
of constant battle forcing my retreat.

And though you’ve plunged my heart into despair
a thousand nights, I can’t forget to care