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Hark! poets of Steemit, heed my call!

A sonnet is delightful in the fall,
And since I bask in flatt'ring metered praise,
A contest I shall run for seven days.

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To woo me is your goal, to win my heart

Through sonnet's classic high-falutin' Art.
The English style Shakespeare did adore
Is what you must employ, I must implore.

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I'll give you a quick lesson if I must,

before my skills of verse begin to rust.
The sonnet I request is fourteen lines
Of iambic pentametric rhymes.

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My post so far is couplets, rhymes of two,

So here is an example just for you:

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A Sonnet

So in this first part I would say you're great,
And tell you all the reasons you're the best,
I'd list the things that I appreciate
About your face, your chin, your knees, your breast.

And then the second stanza plays its part,
I say what I would do to win your love,
Include some junk about my aching heart,
And stuff about the angels up above.

By now the subject should be fairly woo'd;
It never hurts to get down on your knees,
for light and quite romantic is the mood
And though you sing of flowers, don't you sneeze.

The final couplet some great wisdom finds,
The last line must forever blow their minds.

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I'm welcoming to all your mockery,

When after all, I ask you write to me.
I don't ask for perfection, just for rhyme,
A puzzle upon which you can spend some time.

The winners will receive some SBD,

Amounts to be determined (TBD).
I'm hoping to find sponsors for this prize,
So all can be rewarded for their tries.

If I receive no entries, I'm afraid,

My prize of Steem-backed dollars can't be paid.

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If for some reason you have difficulty reading in rhyme, here is a prose rundown of this contest. I'm looking for an English-Style 14-line sonnet. HERE is the dictionary definition for you. I would like to see true rhyme and metered verse, as I have demonstrated above. Those are the main qualities I will look for when judging entries. Content doesn't matter so much, as I'm asking you to woo me. I expect them to be silly if there are any entries at all. Humor and mockery are completely acceptable and encouraged, but serious poems are fine as well.

Rules, Deadline, etc.

Just make a post with your entry and throw it in the comments of this post! Edit: You don't have to make a post. You're welcome to, but I love poems in the comments! You can just share your poem in the comments

Obviously I'd love it if you could resteem this post, but I understand if you don't want to get your page all gummed up with contests.

Deadline is tentatively 7 days from now, the payout of this post. When that time comes, I will reward the SBD payout from this post (+ bonus SBD TBD) to the winner, and bonuses to honorable mentions as well.

Original Works Only

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I've really been enjoying participating in all the great contests put on by my fellow Steemers. I've actually even been winning some of them, and I noticed my SBD are going up. I thought it was time to do a little contest of my own and give something back.

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Of all the many writing contests I've seen here on Steemit, I have yet to see the poetic form I love the most: Iambic Pentameter. I'm a well-trained Shakespearean actor, and I feel that this beautiful form of writing is at risk of being lost to history. The percussive feet of a line of verse represent the heartbeat of a person; it's completely natural. For me, thoughts and words come out in this form all too often. I would love it of some of my fellow Steemian writers would dig out a little iambic verse for me. What can I say? Iamb what iamb.

Titania (Queen of the Fairies) and Bottom, from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Image from Pixabay.

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That awesome cover image (featuring me) was created by @dksart for @papa-pepper's #WildNStrange Contest. Other images created using bitmoji.com

Thanks for reading! Now write me a sonnet!