Sonnets
Avy, I like the site you posted. It gives a good account of the Italian forms and the Shakesperian forms. You will have noted that the Milton sonnet quoted there is in the form ABBA(bis)CDECDE, which is somewhat unusual. The New Collossus which I quoted earlier in this thread has the form ABBA(bis)CDCDCD. John Donne, in the Holy Sonnets, used the form ABBA(bis)CDCDEE, which became a very common form. There is also the form ABAB(bis) with most of the aforementioned arrangements for the sestet. As to my preference, while I enjoy all types of sonnets, I think the Donne form the most interesting; it never gives the sing-song sound you get with some of the others.
I was also interested in the description of the ghazal, which I read about in a most interesting book set in India at the time of the partition, when it was still possible for Moslems and Hindus to be friends and share an evening of listening to ghazals being sung.
I think it is time for a new thread, so I am starting one on Sonnets etc. and will begin with one of the prototypes by Petrarch. I hope you will contribute some ghazals with some notes on their structure etc., since you don't like the notes given in the url.
