JB's+UFG+Annotated+Bibliographies+(Learning+about+Sonnets)

This site is good for a general, brief overview. It does offer a couple of definitions and touches on the subject matter of traditional sonnets, but the article reads descriptively rather than instructively, like an encyclopedic entry. The article offers a few external links to poets, which presumably have written sonnets.
 * Baldick, Chris. "About the Sonnet." //Modern American Poetry//. University of Illinois. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. . **

This is a start-up on-line poetry journal with the first issue due out June 2012. It is currently accepting poetry submissions while the site is under construction. This page discusses a range of sonnets from classic to contemporary forms (a total of seven types, several I had never heard of before visiting the site). Of particular interest to me is the //Blank Verse Sonnet//, which is described by Borsden and Shehan as, " A sonnet like any other, only without rhyme. The freedom won from writing without rhyme is offset by a greater requirement for attention to metrical format and metaphoric language." An example is provided on the page. An adjoining page on this site called "The Sonneteer" appears to be the beginnings of a blog where poetry is posted and up for comment. There are currently several established sonnet variants and two nonconformist sonnet variants that were posted on 8 Feb. 2012.
 * Borsden, Kieran and Mary Shehan. "Established/Prominent Sonnet Variants." //The Resurrectionist//. Resurrection.Press. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.  **

This is truly a resource for a person new to writing sonnets. It appears to be a student handout in association with a university English course. The document's author, Dr. Gideon Burton, provides definitions for the sonnet's formal elements and gives direction on which ones need more attention from the novice sonneteer. In addition, he offers practical advice for figuring out a poem's meter in general by discussing stress placement on one and multiple syllabic words. Two other great features include tips on how to approach the exercise and finally a review checklist of items he looks for in first drafts of student sonnets.
 * Burton, Gideon O. //How to Write a Sonnet//. Dr. Gideon O. Burton / Brigham Young University. 09 Sept. 2005. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. . **

Warning: The background to this excerpted essay is distracting and hard on the eyes. That defect aside, the document itself is a detailed checklist for what makes a good (or poor) sonnet that is akin to prescriptive language rules. Indeed, the featured section of this essay from 1917 (by a notable poet and critic) is a list of 17 rules. It is one of quite an impressive body of historical sonnet criticism excerpted, compiled, and provided by the mother site, Sonnet Central (29 partial--and a handful of complete--criticism spanning from 1575 to 1999). The entire site is worth investigating as other channels provide opportunities to read and listen to sonnets in multiple structural formats (e.g. Shakespearean, Petrarchan) and a fairly substantial history of the poetic form.
 * Crosland, T.W.H. "The Canon." //Sonnet Central//. Ed. Eric Blomquist. 27 Nov. 2011. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. . **

**Ferguson, Amanda. "But Gone." //14 by 14//. Ed. Peter Bloxom. 23 Aug. 2011. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. ** This is a contemporary sonnet that is an example of blank verse and variant structure. The author is a freelance copywriter and has one other sonnet published on this site in Dec. 2008, but this other one is more traditional. The hosting website is dedicated to featuring contemporary sonnets. The name is fashioned after highlighting the top 14 sonnet submissions picked by a "committee" of seven. The editor is a freelance author in Australia and the site has not been updated since Aug. 2011.

This is a personally published collection of modern sonnets from the author, which follows a variety of styles.
 * Makem, Peter. "Nine Sonnets." //Peter Makem//. Web. 16 Feb 2012.  **

Like Sonnet Central, this website is a valuable resource. The page addresses the traditional Italian and English forms, but also gives some background--although not exhaustive--on variant forms. The highlight of this webpage is the external links to modern sonneteers and a range (both historical and stylistic) of links to sonnet examples. There is even a link to a lesson plan, a glossary, and an essay titled "On the Elasticity of the Sonnet and the Usefulness of Collective Experimentation" that, after a brief scan, appears worth reading as a conduit to broadening the vision of a modern-day sonnet.
 * "Poetic Form: Sonnet." //Poets.org//. Academy of American Poets. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. . **

Just like the name implies, this is a general article written as instructions. It does not use esoteric literary terms so it is accessible to a wide audience. What I like most about this how-to page is 1) it is a good model for my own how-to instruction page, and 2) it offers reasons for why a novice writer would want to try to write a sonnet. There are not too many links to additional resources, and the ones provided are not really worth following--especially given the offerings available to a researcher.
 * The Poetry Center, and John Timpane. "Writing a Sonnet." //How-To Help and Videos - For Dummies//. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. . **

This is a fun site that advocates and demonstrates the marrying of traditional sonnet structure (English form) with everyday, common themes. It doesn't offer much in the way instruction, but she does offer a few definitions in reader-friendly prose and encourages writers to have fun with the process. She links to a site called Shakespeare's Sonnets--a site that is similar to the Eserver Poetry Collection sponsored by Iowa State University. The latter is described below; the former does not appear separately on this list because the "home" page link opens separate advertisement pages (annoying!) and the site sponsor (a book company) offers analysis and interpretation--something I would be interested in reading after I've experienced the sonnets for myself, not before. All-in-all, she offers a few cute sonnets and models how sonnets do not have to be about torturous love.
 * Rodgers, Denise. "Funny Sonnet Poems." //Funny Poems for Free//. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. . **

This page addresses the meter and rhyme scheme of a sonnet. It is quick to point out that despite the sonnet's rigidity, it is also flexible and that most sonnets are not written //exclusively// in iambic pentameter because that would be monotonous or may hinder the development of the theme, which are just as important--if not more so--than the meter. Finally, there can be different rhyme schemes and even blank verse.
 * "Sonnet Structure." //Folger Shakespeare Library//. Web. 17 Feb. 2012  **

**Tucker, Herbert. //For Better For Verse: Scholar's Lab//. University of Virginia Department of English. Web. 16 Feb. 2012 ** This is an interactive tool designed to help students learn about meter in English poetry. The form provides poems on which students insert measuring lines to indicate a foot and to indicate the stressed and unstressed syllables. There is also a very generous glossary. This site has a good deal of information available about sonnets, but mostly about rhythm in poetry generally.

There are many sites out there that offer analyses of Shakespeare's sonnets (see above), but this is not one of them. What is nice about this site is precisely that third party (biased?) interpretations are absent. This site posts all of his sonnets (a total of 154). It is a great site to read in an effort to become immersed in this particular genre (the traditional poetics of the English sonnet).
 * "William Shakespeare: The Sonnets." //The Eserver Poetry Collection//. Iowa State University. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. . **