The Poetry Center and The Arizona Research Insitute for Solar Energy (AzRIZE) presents a university-wide Solar Poetry Contest. The contest is presented in celebration of the University of Arizona’s upcoming participation in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, an international student competition to build a house fully powered by the sun.
The Poetry Center invites all UofA students and benefits-eligible staff to submit a sonnet about the sun to Solar Poetry Contest.
Three $500 prizes will be given for the best Petrarchan, Shakespearean, and Non-traditional Sonnet.
Judged by US Creative Writing Professor Alison Hawthorne Deming
Deadline for submission is May 15, 2009
Winners will be announced in August 2009 and will have the opportunity to read their work at the public viewing of the solar house on August 28.
Sonnet Forms
A Petrarchan Sonnet (also called Italian Sonnet) has a two-part structure; an octave (8-line stanza) and a sestet (6-line stanza). The break between the two stanzas is called the volta, or turning point, and at this time something in the poem’s argument changes. There are several variations of the Petrarchan rhme scheme-especially for the last stanza-but it tends to be: abbaabba in the octave, and cdcdcd or cdecd in the sestet.
A Shakespearean Sonnet (also called Elizabethan or English Sonnet) is comprised of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) and one couplet, and its rhyme scheme tends to be: abad cdcd efefgg. The closing couplet marks the Shakespearean Sonnet’s volta, or turning point.
A Non-Traditional Sonnet is written in free-verse, which means it need not be written in an particular meter, and it most likely does not rhyme. A non-traditional sonnet will also always still be 14 lines and contain some sort volta, or turning point, but it need not be broken into stanzas of specific length; it might not be broken into stanzas at all.
To enter, please review guidelines: www.poetrycenter.arizona.edu
The Brainpan 