<meta>

<name>The <index>Sonneteer</index></name>

</author>

<title>Sonnet Machine</title>

<source>The Sonneteer's own modest effort.</source>

<remark>Somewhere on line is a list of rules for sonnets, one of which is <quote>never rhyme on <stress>e</stress></quote>, which is very good rule for verse in English in general (among other reasons,the rhyme is too easy, and tempts one to rhyme badly). This verse breaks that rule in the first quatrain, proceeding from there.</remark>

</meta>

<line>The sonnet is a form of <rhyme on="a">poetry</rhyme></line>

<line>ringing in English since the <rhyme on="b">Renaissance</rhyme></line>

<line>courtiers renewed our verse with this <rhyme on="b">jouissance</rhyme></line>

<line>of rhyme and macaronic <rhyme on="a">melody</rhyme>:</line>

</quatrain>

<line>an octave (these eight lines) is followed <rhyme on="a">by</rhyme></line>

<line>a shift in tone, or theme, in a <rhyme on="c">sestet</rhyme>,</line>

<line>never but lining hope with fond <rhyme on="c">regret</rhyme>,</line>

<line>never but linking words in <rhyme on="a">rhymery</rhyme>.</line>

</quatrain>

</octave>

<line>So to a form, when electric words grow <rhyme on="d">quick</rhyme></line>

<line>in newfound power as code, compiled and <rhyme on="e">freed</rhyme></line>

<line>to answer with dispatch any answerable <rhyme on="e">need</rhyme>,</line>

<line>they drive a counting machine to draw in <rhyme on="d">strict</rhyme></line>

</quatrain>

<line>straight lines the formal frames half-hidden <rhyme on="f">there</rhyme>,</line>

<line>inside sings out: sunshine in stained-glass <rhyme on="f">prayer</rhyme>.</line>

</couplet>

</sestet>

</sonnet>

</sonneteer>