Alankar(Decor)-249 Poem by Indira Renganathan

The Wasted Barks(Alfred Dorn sonnet)

The Alfred Dorn sonnet originated in a Formalist publication contest.
Each year the Formalist runs a sonnet contest where the applicants make up their own form of sonnet.
The sonnet form is named after the winning applicant, and in this case Alfred Dorn was the winner
and the sonnet he devised named after him.

The elements of the Alfred Dorn Sonnet are:

the quatorzain is made up of an Italian Sestet and a Sicilian Sestet bridged by a rhymed couplet.
metered, iambic pentameter.
rhymed, abcabc dd aeaeae (note "a" is a linking rhyme between the 2 sestets)


The Wasted Barks

Once upon a time there stood a tall man
With a stone to throw on a barking dog
But before he threw it the dog pounced fast
Panicked the man with the stone ran and ran
Seeking refuge to escape from the dog
Climbed upon a tree top so very fast

What next to do, he was blinking, blinking
What next to do, dog kept barking, barking

From the tree top could not get down the man
As the irked dog seemed not to change its stance
Luckily he had the stone in his hand
He threw the stone that fell at a distance
Dog thought it was its food, at once so ran
Got down the man ran away by that chance


Note: the sestets and the couplet are shown separate.
In reality they are joined to make the 14 line form of the sonnet.