Sonnet for Sale
Unused, in good condition, unpublished.
Precise metre, several painstaking drafts,
all darlings murdered in cold blood, one finished
conceit running through it like life-rafts
on a ship. Neither Shakespearean or Petrachan
in its composition. Can be read at parties
or funerals. Ensured to affect mood for all occasions:
can be typed up and hung in the pantry
or lounge. Some marks of development in ninth line –
regular stresses, enjambement, iambic pentameter,
accessible scansion, plausible rhyme.
Rejected by Iota, Smith’s Knoll and Magma
(not to mention The Dark Horse and PN Review.)
Ends with sturdy rhyming couplet. Is this sonnet for you?
£12.99
* David Tait's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in and The Rialto, Stand, The GuardianThe North. He is House Poet at the Manchester Royal Exchange for the Carol Ann Duffy & Friends Poetry Series.
