When I saw Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Anne Hathaway," I confess that my first thought was that it was about the actress with that name. No, it is about William Shakespeare's wife, or more specifically about the bed he left her in his will.
He gave his wife, Anne Hathaway, his second-best bed. On the surface, that seems like an insult. Beds and other pieces of household furniture were often the sole bequest to a wife because the common practice was for the best things to go to the children and the second-best to the wife. (see Anne's bed)
Duffy's poem is a sonnet written by Anne to her husband, the man known for his sonnets. It is about that second-best bed. It seems very appropriate to use a sonnet form for this topic and having Anne write the poem is a nice turn.
It's not a formal sonnet, though it has 14 lines and a closing heroic couplet. We have called for sonnets twice before. Once for sonnets in one of the sonnet forms (2013) and earlier we asked for sonnets that were less adherent to the forms but that focused on a specific topic (1999). You might look at those earlier issues for information about the sonnet forms and examples.
Our minimal sonnet requirements are 14 lines and a concluding couplet. You may go for a full rhyme scheme, one of the sonnet forms, the 8 lines with a turn to the concluding 6, or any allusions to sonnets.
Deadline: April 30, 2022
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