[Quiet Man Cometh]

I only read the first poem so far. It's late and I'm tired, but I did enjoy it. It made me think about a couple things. I'm not all that fond of sonnets myself, but I have written a couple in the Shakespearean style, like you have up there.

I'm something of a poetry nut, and I like to explore it. I'm also a stickler for forms since I'm of the very strong believe that there is not point behind writing formed poetry if you don't follow the form. That's what free verse is for.

Your comment on Haiku reminds me of some reading I did on the topic, and one of the comments was that Haiku were not designed for the English language, hence the appearance of being too short. Apparently one can say much more in the same number of syllables with Japanese characters then in the equivalent number in English. As a result, Haiku written in English are staring to break from the standard 5-7-5 or other "rules" that apply best when used with Japanese. I really like Haiku, but I think it suffers often because people keep with the 5-7-5 and call it a Haiku regardless of topic or the relations between the lines. It's become over simplified. I'm trying to get a better grasp of what they should be, but it's not easy.

The same thing has happened to the sonnet actually, though it's perhaps less noticeable. If memory serves, sonnets first popped up in Italy, and Shakespeare altered the rhyme scheme to account for the fact that English has fewer end-rhyming words than Italian does, or possibly French.

Most of what I write now is free verse, though I do subscribe to the notion that no "verse" is truly "free" (I'm quoting that but I'm not sure from where. I want to say T.S. Eliot but I'm not sure). It's always highly thought about in some way, even if it's something like where to put a line break.