Where is the love?

This strange feeling, it takes you by surprise,

Its unknown, is it cloudy or clear?

Will we know what it is when it starts to rise?

Is love what you see or what you hear?

Is it soul mates designed from first sight?

Or are we in love several times?

We search for it and sometimes we have to fight,

And when it’s lost? Where do we find the signs?

Is love a puzzle, is love a maze?

When all is done and gone, love will remain,

Will we feel it around through every phase?

It’s there through the grief, despair and pain,

What do we look for when it’s not known?

Do we have to search for it alone?

Love

I’m bound by a feeling so deep and wide,
So huge, so delicate, so strong, so loud,
That I cannot, and will, not push aside,
Of which I’m infinitely proud,
A feeling without which, I’m lost, I’m spent,
Bound to one so short, bound to one so good,
She is one who as if by Venus sent,
She fuels the fire of passion like dry wood.
She grab’d control of mine mortal man’s heart,
With her, for all the gold of this large world,
I would not voluntarily part.
Even were my mind to become unfurl’d,
I’d still recognise and wildly love,
Someone I will never bore or tire of.

I will love him forever...

What a wonderful feeling love can be…

As wonderful as a beautiful rose…

A person by my side who is so dear to me

And day by day…our love grows and grows

Every day I see his wonderful face

 And remember how lucky I am to have him

 Then I feel that my heart begins to race

And I know it must be love I feel for him

I have never felt this way before

Ever since I met him the hole in my heart was untied

There is no one else I would ask for

Because he is the only one I want by my side

The future is very hard to tell; however

But all I know is that I will love him forever…

LOVE

The sun shines quite strongly in the summer,

The birds sing while spreading their mighty wings,

The scent of divine flowers and lovers,

The feeling between two people can bring.

An unexplainable definition,

In which words cannot seem to interpret,

Adrenaline, working on a mission

With the heart and mind hoping to be worth it.

People fall in love, so keep up ahead,

The goal of life, to have a longtime friend.

Love is in the air, as always is said,

Cliché it may seem but true in the end.

The comfort when you look into their eyes,

The feeling no one can ever despise.

Love comes around again

Wonderful times, the feeling must not end,

And yet it does, regret, pain and sorrow,

Some hope remains that he will be my friend.

Love stays, no matter what strength you borrow.

Life goes on, still memory does remain.

A wish to repeat what has once ocurred

A wish that is so deep you go insane.

A wish not just insane but quite absurd.

Some day new love is found and suddenly,

The joy, delight and pride can start once more.

A new life begun, without a hint of misery,

And never again will that heart be sore.

Love's uncontrollable, tough and endless,

Enjoy it and simply say out loud: YES!

Love

How can love be interpreted simply?

Love is a fickle beast, arduous to tame

Love cannot be measured, seldom clearly

Love is mysterious, having no name

Love comes in various different forms

None of them clear enough to comprehend

Love is like a fire, blazing, bright and warm,

Love is like iron, and can never bend

Love is both a blessing and a burden

It leaves us yearning and begging for more

The heart is fragile, treated by surgeons

Love is a curious thing, opening doors

A man cannot be stopped, if struck by love

Love is love, from depths below to above

A Sonnet

I have been very impressed by how you have wrestled and fought with iambic pentameter over the past couple of tasks. I think it is proving a little harder than some of you anticipated, but you are making real headway nonetheless. Iambic pentameter is the crucial building block, obviously - but so many of you have either cracked this now, or, if you haven't then you have ALMOST done so.

However, I am not convinced you are reading each other's attempts fully - and, even more importantly, each other's COMMENTS. It is from the moderators' comments and suggestions that you will learn the most - and they are making lots of extremely useful points every time. Have you tried out all their suggested ideas and strategies? Are you confident you are doing your best to learn from what they say? Please make the most of this valuable resource.

Best of all, however, some of you are managing to do so without sacrificing the power of your poetry itself. This is the real challenge: a synthesis of CONTENT (choice of language and what it is about) and FORM (rhyme, rhythm etc.). In fact, you can look at it mathematically:

powerful CONTENT + disciplined FORM = effective POETRY

Now for this week's task - and it's a DIFFICULT one. Your first, complete SONNET.

These are the rules of the English (or Shakespearean) SONNET:

1. It must be written in IAMBIC PENTAMETER (i.e. x5 dee-DUMs)
2. It will be 14 lines long, and consist of x3 quatrains (4 lines) and x1 final couplet (2 lines)
3. It will have a strict rhyme scheme (abab cdcd efef gg) - please see me if you are not completely clear what this means.

The challenge is putting all these things TOGETHER!

And what should your sonnet be about? Well, I know I'm a couple of weeks late, but what better topic than to do as Shakespeare did, and write about LOVE?

So, good luck! And please make sure your attempts are online by midnight next Sunday 13th March.

Here's my attempt at a 'Valentine's Day' sonnet. See if you can find the one iambic error:

I'm ten years old when first I fall in love
And Jennifer is my beloved's name.
An angel who has tumbled from above,
She kindles in my heart a burning flame.
And when she asks to be my Valentine,
I can't believe what I am being told.
She offers me her heart; I give her mine,
Together with a chain of fakest gold.
But later, when she gives my love the sack,
Repudiating every vain embrace,
I make it clear I want the trinket back
And, tearful, Jenny throws it in my face.
Misunderstood and unrequited too,
My love found none deserving until you.