Mary, mother of us, where is your relief? More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.Ĭomforter, where, where is your comforting?
Try scanning this equally famous opening by Hopkins: It doesn't have to be iambic, at least not consistently so. Sidney's Astrophel and Stella begins with a famous one in hexameter ('Fool, said my Muse to me, look in thy heart and write.').Ģ. Although I agree with you that form matters in poetry, I'm afraid your definition of a sonnet as a 14-line poem in iambic pentameter with ten syllables to each line contains at least three oversimplifications.ġ.
