Formal Poetry

As I may have written previously, I'm a fan of the kind of formal poetry Richard Wilbur and Donald Justice wrote. Also John Donne, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore - to randomly name a few poets, in no particular order.

I admire the discipline required to write formal poetry well. And as a poet, I also really enjoy seeing how the pressure of rules brings to the surface words, lines and images that otherwise might never have found their way into a poem. I've written a few sonnets, a somewhat cringe-worthy sestina, haiku and ghazals and a golden shovel and maybe a villanelle in my time. And it's feeling like it's time to go back to form in the coming weeks, should a subject that has enough merit arise.