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free sonnet

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A sonnet that freely adapts traditional rules—often omitting rhyme, altering line count, or shifting volta placement—for modern expression.

Detailed Definition
A free sonnet is a fourteen-line poem that retains the traditional length of the sonnet but abandons strict adherence to rhyme scheme, meter, or volta placement, allowing poets to explore sonnet conventions through contemporary, experimental, or personal idioms while still engaging with the form’s historical weight.
Example
Example in poetry:
Free sonnet appears in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “I will put Chaos into fourteen paragraphs”; In Wanda Coleman’s “American Sonnet” series, breaking traditional form; In Terrance Hayes’ “American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin,” using fourteen lines without meter or rhyme; In W.H. Auden’s “Sonnet,” subverting volta and structure; Contemporary poet Dawn Lundy Martin uses free sonnets in “Good Stock” for racial and gender critique.
Additional Notes
free sonnet: A poem that adheres loosely to the sonnet's 14-line length and thematic turn (volta), but disregards its strict, traditional rhyme scheme and meter (like iambic pentameter); a modern variation.
Also Known As
Liberated sonnet free-form sonnet unbound sonnet structure Blank sonnet
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