Prompt 3

I don't believe I have very much experience with sonnets. I'm sure I have read a handful of sonnets throughout my life, but I wouldn't be able to recollect them. The structure of a sonnet is basically written in stone, for the fact that it's more than likely always a square. This structure gives it stability and consistency throughout the reading. There's no adjustments the reader needs to make because of a curveball like change in the writing. If it did this, it would throw the reader off, especially an easily distracted reader like myself. This would hinder the effect the author is trying to create. It would generate an imbalance that one is just unable to correct. Authors know to stick with one structure during a story or an idea they are trying to convey. In How To Read Literature Like A Professor, Thomas C. Foster talks about the sonnet being, "the only poetic form the great majority of readers ever needs to know" (P. 22). He goes on to elaborate on this point by talking about how it is the one poetic form that is so general and so petite that it is the one form he would choose over any other form. I think he feels this way because, like I said earlier, a sonnet won't throw you a curveball. A sonnet is a sonnet, no matter what the author writes about or portrays, it stays the same. It won't change on you, it will stay loyal, and it usually sounds good when read aloud.