A Quick Sonnet Lesson

by Jessa R. Sexton

This year I released Stories of Enchantment and Little Stories of Enchantment. Each of these books is filled with twelve fairy tales I’ve condensed into sonnet form—these have been gorgeously adorned with portraits of the main characters by illustrator Rehanna Mae Grant. There are two versions. The red copy contains the sonnets, illustrations, and the classic fairy tale itself as well. The green copy is for littles: it’s more of a picture book style with just the twelve sonnets and illustrations.

So one of the first things you might think when you’re looking at the book cover is What is a sonnet? Don’t feel too bad for wondering that. I’ve been asked this question before. And what I want to do in this blog is give you the quickest poetry sonnet lesson, using “Little Red Riding Hood,” below, as an example.

Sonnets are a poem form, like a haiku or limerick. There are really THREE MAIN elements that you need to know when writing a sonnet:

1) number of lines,

2) line lengths or meter, and

3) rhyme scheme.

So—#1. A sonnet has 14 lines. That’s right—I looked over an ENTIRE fairy tale and tried to summarize it or capture the main themes and feelings in just 14 lines.

#2 is the line length or meter. Each of those 14 lines is ten syllables.

If you want to know the technical term, it’s called iambic pentameter. Just like a pentagon has 5 sides, this is called iambic pentameter, because there are 5 iambs. And an iamb is the combo of two syllables sounding like du DUH (one unstressed and one stressed).

It’s crazy how much math sonneteers have to do, huh?

If you didn’t catch the multiplication there:

an iamb is two syllables x five iambs per line = 10 syllables per line.

If it seems complicated, just remember that: 10 syllables per line.

And a sonnet, if read with the meter exaggerated, sounds like this:

Come here, Little Red, always covered by

warm velvet, take this cake to your Gram’s home

now—you two sweets will lift her spirit. I

warn you, dear one: stay the path. Do. Not. Roam.

Kind of like a galloping horse. But the beauty of this poem form is that the meter is there, but you don’t read like an equestrian—you read to the punctuation.

Say that with me, because it’s really the most important poem lesson I could ever give you ever: READ TO THE PUNCTUATION. That’s how the poem should ebb and flow—not like a jolting horse ride, but like a lyrical story.

Watch my film debut in the video below to hear how the "Little Red Riding Hood" sonnet should be read.

READ TO THE PUNCTUATION. Got it? Good.

Okay, we’ve talked about the sonnet having 14 lines.

And we’ve talked about each line having 10 syllables.

So the final thing I need to point about this poem form is #3 rhyme scheme.

There are several different kinds of sonnet rhyme schemes, but the one I find easiest to write is called the Shakespearean after, you guessed it, William Shakespeare. You know he wrote Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet and those other plays, but you maybe didn’t know he was an incredible poet who wrote sonnets.

His rhyme scheme is

ABAB

CDCD

EFEF

GG

What is that gibberish?

That is the rhyming pattern of the end words of each line. And notice that I gave you 14 letters because you have how many lines in a sonnet?  14—you’ve got it. 

So look at this sonnet. If I dissect the rhymes, you see the first ending rhyme is

By, which gets the letter A. Since the next word doesn’t rhyme with by, it gets the next letter in the alphabet, B.

But then I rhymes with By, so it gets the letter A as well. And Roam rhymes with home, so it gets a B.

If you follow that pattern, see the rhyme scheme below: 

Come here, Little Red, always covered by        A

warm velvet, take this cake to your Gram’s home      B

now—you two sweets will lift her spirit. I            A

warn you, dear one: stay the path. Do. Not. Roam.        B

 

Come here, Little Red—tell me where you’re go-        C

ing. To see your Gram? Hmmm. You should pick her      D

flowers! Far from the path, many kinds grow.        C

(While you’re gone, I’ll make a tasty transfer.)        D

 

Come here, Little Red—what big hands I have,       E

ay? Well, let me show you how they’ll hug you—      F

Big teeth? They make eating easy. I’ve had      E

one snack so far, and you’ll be number two.      F

 

Come here, Little Red—climb out; the beast’s dead.      G

Be careful whom you trust and where you’re led.      G

That’s the Shakespearen Sonnet rhyme scheme.

In the end, if you can remember those three things,

1)   14 lines

2)   10 syllables per line

3)   rhyme scheme like Shakespeare’s

ABAB   CDCD EFEF GG

you can tackle writing a sonnet, which I think you should try.

But even if you don’t, I hope you can better appreciate sonnets. If you want to see how I put 12 fairy tales into this form, you can get my book by clicking on the covers at the start of this blog. I want to thank you for learning about poetry. Happy reading, and happy writing! 

Fairy Tales for Teaching and Learning

By Professor Jessa R. Sexton

An educator and author of ten years, I’ve spent the last year studying fairy tales as I worked on Stories of Enchantment: Twelve Sonnet Fairy Tales and Little Stories of Enchantment: Twelve Sonnet Fairy Tales for Children. Some believe this genre’s purpose is to teach lessons to children. In some cases, this theory makes perfect sense. What better way to explain the proper and improper decisions a child should make than to show wildly exaggerated examples? Obedience, humility and hard work, and goodness are three of the many qualities fairy tales promote through storytelling. 

1) One life lesson is to obey your parents. The story of “Red Riding Hood” is told in different fashions by various authors around the globe, but the general obedience message remains. When Red disobeys her mother, she is punished: usually being eaten by a wolf. In some instances she dies; in others she lives to repeat the moral to the reader. Children may or may not walk away from this tale with a fear of the woods and wolves, but they hopefully will see that respect must be given to authority.

2) In another example, Cinderella teaches us that humility and hard work will bring a great reward.  After her father marries a terrible stepmother, Cinderella is forced to work like a poorly-treated maid instead of the equal she is in her own household, but she doesn’t complain. In the end, she, and not the bossy stepsisters, steals the heart of the prince and is rescued from her horrible living situation: brought from actual rags to riches.

3) In a possibly confusing example, Snow-White shows children that goodness triumphs over evil. Though Snow-White doesn’t make the best decisions for her own safety—I mean, she trusts a strange women three times though harmed in each instance—she is portrayed as a symbol of goodness. The wicked queen, no matter how cunning, cannot conquer her virtuous foe. The queen is filled with a pride and murderous envy that leads her to her own destruction. 

In all of these stories, children are taught through the art of the written word. Children are drawn to storytelling: they live to hear and eventually create stories. Therefore, a story becomes a powerful instructional tool that should be used to help them think, grow, and learn to teach others.

When properly executed, fairy tale lessons become cloaked within the mystical and the magical. Children travel into faraway places and return from that journey with a better reverence for both reality and fantasy. When wisdom and whimsy marry in this manner, they live happily ever after.

A portion of this article is presented in Global Competency by Anastasia Morozova with Dr. Mark Hilliard. This book will be released this May 2016. 

A Quick Guide to Dinner Parties

By Emily Mae Bergeron

Hosting a dinner party can be a way to impress important people in society and the industry, or to just have an enjoyable time with friends. Formality ranges from a delightful meal with a few co-workers to an extravagant homage to the Victorian era soirees like those portrayed in Downton Abbey, complete with a dashingly clad butler and at least ten courses. Whichever you choose, the food and drink menu is of utmost importance, along with details such as the guest list, décor, and invitations. The main point, no matter how big or small your party, is to create a pleasant and memorable dining experience.  

illustration by Sarah Keaggy 

When I think dinner party, the first image that comes to mind is the grand traditional English dinners of the 1910s. The aristocratic families would gather round a long, hand-carved table with the head of households at each end. Whether guests, or just the family, were present, they had elaborately planned meals, spotless dinnerware, and impeccable attire; perfect dining etiquette was a must. A menu for a traditional English dinner party is comprised of six courses, according to the High Steward of Oxford University, David Woodfine, in his cookbook, From Kitchen to High Table: The British-American Edition (184):

Course One: light appetizers or hors d’oeuvres
Course Two: soup and bread
Course Three: main course, which usually includes meat or fish, along with vegetables
Course Four: salad (a British Tradition to serve after the main course)
Course Five: dessert
Course Six: cheese and fruit

If you are attending a dinner party there are a few rules of etiquette you should know:

•  Place your napkin in your lap only after the host or hostess has done the same.
• Use the silverware farthest from your plate first.
• When leaving the table temporarily place the napkin on your chair.
• You should take hints from the host or hostess in all things. 
• If passing food, always pass from left to right. Do not reach across other guests.
• If you drop a utensil, don’t pick it up. Ask for a new one. 
• Hold your wine glass by the stem.
• At the meal’s end lay your napkin to the right of your plate. 

These simple rules will help you be prepared the next time you host or attend a dinner party.

Bergeron references Dr. David Woodfine's cookbook. Sarah Keaggy's illustration appears both in this book and Dr. Woodfine's children's etiquette book: ABCs of Etiquette for Young People. 

Illustrating Fairy Tales: A Childhood Dream Come True

by Rehanna Mae Grant

When author Jessa Sexton first approached me about illustrating a book of fairy tale sonnets, I was over the moon. I had worked with Jessa on a few of her previous books, and working with her as a friend and author is always a treat. For me, illustrating children’s books has only been a reality for about four years. Prior to meeting Jessa, it was nothing more than a dream.

My love of animation and character art goes all the way back to my childhood. Bedtime stories included fairy tales like “Cinderella” and “Goldilocks,” and our family television entertained a constant parade of Disney movies. Even now the illustrations that surrounded me as child inspire my work.

I was originally only going to Illustrate only one of the twelve stories, but I was so intrigued by her idea to condense these beloved fairy tales and give them new life that I simply had to be involved in the whole project.  

I received my BFA in fashion design from O’More where Jessa taught all of my language arts courses.  It was at O’More that I fully realized my desire to illustrate children’s books. After taking fashion illustration classes and growing my skill, having a future as an illustrator became a reality. I got my first taste of the business when Jessa commissioned me to illustrate the cover art and logo for Live the Blessing. With every book I worked on after that came a stronger pull to make the leap into the world of children’s books. When Jessa shared her brilliant fairy tale sonnet idea with me I was blown away by the originality of the concept, and naturally began dreaming up illustration ideas. At the time I didn’t know that this book of fairy tale sonnets would be the book that made my dream come true. (Super cheesy I know, but I couldn’t help it.)

So this big, illustrious dream I keep talking about: the first time I remember really knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up was after watching the movie Anastasia. I was about eight and completely obsessed with the animation and the portrayal of Paris fashion designers. I spent the next year drawing Anastasia-inspired dresses on everything. So when Jessa asked me to work with her on this book, my eight-year-old self nearly lost her cool. I took a deep breath and very calmly accepted the invitation, but I was so excited to get the chance to reimagine the characters I had grown up loving.

Originally I was going to be one of twelve artists chosen to illustrate one sonnet. I had already been pulling inspiration for a “Little Red Riding Hood” illustration, so it was my first choice when it came time to pick a sonnet. Upon reading several of the early sonnets Jessa had finished, I was inspired with illustration ideas for all of them. I could see it in my mind’s eye: a portrait drawing of each story’s main character. I was so passionate about this project, and I really wanted to try my hand at illustrating an entire book on my own. After sharing my desire to expand my work in children’s books and the inspiration I had for the illustrations, Jessa suggested I be the sole illustrator on this book.

Every part of working on Stories of Enchantment has been magical. This project is so dear to my heart. I feel like I have come full circle. Jessa and her brilliant mind have afforded me the chance to be a part of something brilliant and beautiful, live a childhood dream, and be an inspiration to someone else the way my childhood and current muses have been for me. Fairy tales are essential to our lives. They teach us about strength, love, loss, and fighting for what you believe in. For me fairy tales also mean chasing your dreams and creating the life you want to live. If only one person follows his or her dream after reading this book, then I will feel that we were a success.

Here's your first look inside Stories of Enchantment! Enjoy this illustration and sonnet of "Cinderella." The book will be launched Monday, April 4th.

In Defense of the Sonnet

By Professor Jessa R. Sexton

When I was in elementary school, I can remember arguing with my teacher that a poem didn’t have to rhyme. My first attraction to poetry as an art form was the freedom I felt in writing it. My mom would quickly say that made incredible sense, given my calmly-rebellious nature. I like rules—when I make them. 

As I grew older, I began to experiment, but in the backwards way from how many artists do. I decided to test my limits, first because a teacher told me to, and second because I was curious: how creative could I still be within the confines of a set poem structure? 

The thrill of seeking an answer to this question still inspires me today. And in 2015, I fell madly in love with the sonnet. Though I wouldn’t claim them to be the most difficult poem form to craft, they’ve become my favorite form of poem-unication.

Not everyone feels the same love, and I can understand. However, I’d like to share a little about why you should give sonnets a try, both in reading and—if you are so inclined—in writing. In any case, by looking at the basics, the blending, and the beauty of this form, I hope you can develop a higher admiration.

Basics

What is a sonnet?
All sonnets have fourteen lines, each line with ten syllables. 

This ten syllable line is said to have iambic pentameter. (An iam means two syllables; pent means five; two times five equals ten, so the meter is ten syllables!)

The three most popular sonnet form rhyme schemes are listed below:

Italian
a b b a     a b b a
The remaining 6 lines is called the sestet and can have either two or three rhyming sounds, arranged in a variety of ways: 
c d c d c d
c d d c d c
c d e c d e
c d e c e d
c d c e d c
c d c d e e

Spenserian
a b a b b c b c c d c d e e 

Shakespearean
a b a b  c d c d e f e f g g 

Oh—and I made up my own, because I dream of one day being a famous sonneteer as well.

Hilliardian
abcd abcd efgefg

Blending

Now that you’ve seen the basic mechanics behind the sonnet, you might be thinking something such as this: But…why? Why would you write within those set parameters and restrictions?

I’m so glad you asked. So many reasons abound. I’ll share a few.

1. The challenge! As I mentioned before, being creative within confines is an excellent exercise. Just as your body grows stronger and more tone with physical exercise, your craft will develop when you mentally challenge your abilities by playing with poetic mechanics such as the way words sound, lie on the page, or flow—or by working through various poem forms. 
2. The connection! Form and function are both important terms in art. In poetry, the blending of these brings a deeper meaning. A sonnet seems strict and rigid. When you pair this form with the function of discussing something holy, deep, or lovely, you create a marriage of form and function. When you pair this form with the function of discussing something funny, broken, or mundane, you create a juxtaposition in form and function. Either way, you are using the form of the sonnet to communicate on a deeper level. 
3. The conception! When I have an idea, for some reason I find an incredible journey of discovery when mulling it over through sonnet-writing. Other artists have their favorite modes of  brainstorming, of breaking down thoughts and putting them back together. For me (and maybe for you, if you’ll try), sonneting helps me begin and end an idea I want to examine.

Beauty

I have two poems solidly memorized. The first is by William Carlos Williams.

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

I think you can see why that one has easily stayed with me. But the second poem is Shakespeare’s sonnet that begins “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The stark contrast between these two poems is obvious. For the longest time, I feel we’ve jumped up to defend the beauty of the simple, the every day. And while this has merit, we also need to remember the beauty of the complex.

A spider can weave all day, and a single thoughtless swipe of my child’s hand can destroy her work. That delicate complexity must be rebuilt. And when I write a sonnet, I try to craft something solid enough to withstand the apathy it might attain. Of course disinterest can destroy, but half the time I write for myself. Though I love to share a poetic success, the reason I step up to the sonnet in the first place is to find what beauty I can discover when I give myself the chance to walk through the iams and the rhyming and the fixed fourteen lines. Because if I make it through all of that, and my final product flows off my tongue like a song, then I’ve proved to that calmly-rebellious elementary school poet that there’s a different kind of freedom in form. 

COMING SOON are two new books by author Jessa R. Sexton and illustrator Rehanna Mae Grant: one for all ages (pictured above) and one aimed more towards kids called Little Stories of Enchantment: Twelve Fairy Tale Sonnets for Children. Click on the cover to learn more. 

A New Partnership with Author Lori Bumgarner

The Hilliard Institute is honored to be working more intently this 2016 with Hilliard Press author Lori Bumgarner. Her company, paNASH, is undergoing some exciting new changes. Instead of focusing on image consulting, she's working on passion coaching. 

During a recent time of reflection and discovery, Bumgarner writes, "The message I was getting is I am to help other people discover and pursue their passions in life and work, and help them find ways over, through, or around the obstacles and fears keeping them from their passions. As soon as this came to my mind, I could clearly see and visualize ways of helping people do this, using my own unique strengths and passions." Learn more about this development here. 

Her website is full of inspiring and guiding information for those looking to change or enhance their current situations to better develop and pursue their passions. 

The Hilliard Institute is dedicated to the life goal of becoming passionate ever-learners. Bumgarner's article on "11 Benefits of Pursuing Your Passions" explains how we can become "passion rich" and learn how to make a living with our passions, which places our life and career in harmony. We've benefited from reading this and her other writings, and we believe you will too. We also look forward to seeing how our new partnership with paNASH will enrich both of our organizations in 2016 and beyond. 

The Lecture A Viable Teaching Methodology—Yes or No?

By Dr. K. Mark Hilliard

At one time, the lecture held a place of honor and esteem in academia. Yet today, the lecture has been delegated to the basement, so to speak, in the inventory of viable teaching methodologies—stuffed away in old boxes with our platform shoes and leisure suits. But is that where it belongs, and why has it been so consigned? 
 
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “lecture” as “an educational talk to an audience, especially one of students in a university,” but it also offers the definition of “a lengthy reprimand or warning.”  Could it be that somewhere along the line of fine lecturing we somehow digressed from the first definition to definition two, and our “talks” to our students became the psychological equivalent of lengthy reprimands, more so than meaningful dialogue—“educational talks?” 

I would hope that we could all say that we have experienced lectures that captured our attention: lecturers who captivated us with their words and experiential expressions.  But, I know that we have all, likewise, experienced lectures that had the same negative effect as a reprimand on our intellectual capacity to learn to the extent that we shut out the speaker and transfigured our mind into a state of meaningless contemplation—day dreaming.

As a result of a multiplicity of bad lectures over a period of time, I am afraid we have, in the words of my mother, “thrown out the baby with the bath water.”  We have all but eliminated the lecture from our repertoire of teaching and learning styles, and I am concerned that we are raising a generation of students and new teachers who might never experience, or learn how to offer, a quality lecture. This distresses me immensely and is the major reason for this exploration into The Lecture, A Viable Teaching Methodology—Yes or No?

Let’s begin with an analysis of some of the broad, major components of a lecture, actually not of the lecture itself so much as all the elements that surround the lecture:  

• the subject matter;
• the interest of the audience in the subject matter;
• the pre-knowledge and experiences of the audience and ability of the audience to comprehend, translate, and apply the information delivered in the lecture (which can relate to age, previous level of training or education, sex, cultural background, preconceived notions about the speaker or the subject matter, and a multitude of other characteristics which affect the ability of the audience to appropriately listen and learn);
• the time of day for the lecture;
• the environment or location of the lecture;
• the speaker;
• the knowledge of the speaker;
• the experiences of the speaker;
• the training of the speaker—on teaching and learning, and on the subject matter; and
• the ability of the speaker to relate to the audience and the audience to relate to the speaker.

1) The Subject Matter
While the subject matter is quite relevant in giving a lecture, I know from experience that a good lecturer can make any subject matter a valued and worthwhile encounter.  As speakers, sometimes our topics are assigned—hopefully based on our area of expertise; sometimes we are able to select our topics from a pre-determined list; and sometimes the subject matter is ours for the choosing.  At whatever the level of choice the lecturer has, it is important to either select a subject for which you have both knowledge and experience, or to create the time and opportunity to obtain some degree of advanced knowledge and experience before offering the lecture. 

I cannot overemphasize the importance of some level of experiential expertise in offering a quality lecture. And while direct experience with the subject matter is incredibility beneficial, experience does not always have to be directly related to the topic, but quite often is simply a by-product of a multiplicity of life experiences that give you the ability to communicate effectively and meaningfully. 

What we don’t always understand is that each of our experiences becomes a part of our collective memory and is accessible to our brain to help us express a point, expand on a thought, provide a metaphor, or tell a story (even if these experiences do not directly relate to the subject matter), and these experiential expressions are needed to make our subject matter come alive.  In practical terms, the more smells we smell, the more tastes we taste, the more sounds we hear, the more sights we see, and the more shapes and textures we touch, the more our experiences are expanded.  And the more experiences, the better our ability to lecture. 

By experiencing the smell of a pipe, the speaker is better able to describe smells. By traveling to a foreign county, the speaker is better able to speak on the excitement of travel.  By experiencing a variety of emotions, the speaker is better able to express feelings.  And by reading an assortment of books, the speaker is better able to express a variety of evocative words.  Through our study, research, and active participation in life, we are better able to assemble our words into meaningful dialogue that will connect with the experiences of our audience. 

Dr. K. Mark Hilliard speaking at the Oxford Centre World Peace Symposium at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, March 2015

This article, in its entirety, appears in the second edition of Educational Wellness. 

Time for Tea

art from Hilliard Press book  Join Me for Afternoon Tea

By Professor Jessa R. Sexton

You’ve heard the age-old adage to stop and smell the roses, but since plants cower when I come near (because they’ve heard I’d unwittingly let my own mother wither if she were leafy and green), I chose a different enlightenment pause. 

Whatever happened to teatime?

Tea and tête-à-tête  

In my travel opportunities, I’ve been blessed with two trips to England, and both times I was giddy at all the chances for tea and conversation. And that’s part of it. I don’t remember ever having a cup of tea in front of my laptop; it was always  with someone with the sole purpose of enjoying the taste and time together. 

Today we are too busy with being busy. We have to do at least three things at one time to feel as though we are accomplishing anything at all. 

I am a mother of three. I often feel frantic by how little I feel I accomplish each day, and I think part of that is our society’s definition of daily accomplishment. We must always do more to be more, or so we are told. 

And yet half of the things we do are really a waste of the valuable moments where we could just be.

The time of tea and tête-à-tête is one spent in enjoyment of being: being together, being thoughtful, being warmed, being welcomed. 

I want to bring teatime back to our culture, or at least into my own culture. When people visit me, I try to offer them what Dr. K. Mark Hilliard calls “a cup and a chat.” Yes, we have housework and projects piling around us, but moments away from our to do lists will be invaluable for relaxation and clarity. 

Tranquilitea
But a cup of tea need not always be with another. Still holding to the idea of teatime as be time, I also recognize the worth of this chance for inspiration-abounding solitude. 

As a write-at-home mom, time alone is rare.  I find myself piddling too much of it away on brainlessness when I could let my mind wander over a warm brew. Something about tea and quiet seems to help me unwind. My mind doesn’t stop thinking (ever), but it does get the chance to think about whatever it wants. Every once in a while I have to steer it away from the dinner menu or whether I need to put diapers on the shopping list, but I can take another sip and reign it back in to something I want to truly contemplate.  I don’t ever solve the world’s problems in my private reflections, but I do sometimes notice something beautiful. 

Trouble yourself for tea
Tea is taste, touch, sight, smell, sound: it is a complete sensory package to be shared with a friend or group over a mash of ideas or to be enjoyed alone, freely sequestered from the world. 

Tea is not much trouble; boiling water is easy. The only trouble is taking the time for tea, but it is a trouble you simply must get into. 

Love teatime? Watch our video on how to make the perfect cup of tea from former butler to Blenheim Palace, Dr. David Woodfine.