coronasonnet

The coronasonnet is a contemporary poetic form originating from Singapore. It was invented by the poets of SingPoWriMo (Singapore Poetry Writing Month) in the early 21st century, in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak. The coronasonnet is unique for its inherent virality, where it spreads itself to other poets as part of its formal requirements.

The form is a descendant of the Italian sonnet form, with Italy currently being the nation with the largest number of deaths from COVID-19. Despite petitions to acknowledge lineage from the Chinese 律诗, the current recognised name of the coronasonnet does not include any geographical reference to prevent discrimination against its poetic exponents. 

Another common name for the coronasonnet is the quaronasonnet, with reference to large numbers of coronasonnets being written by poets in quarantine or under shelter-in-place / stay-home / lock-down conditions.

Contents

• 1Structure
• 2  Examples
• 
  

Structure[edit]

There are 4 rules of the coronasonnet:
- The coronasonnet has 14 lines, but need not follow any other rules of the sonnet form. 
- The coronasonnet has been infected by 2 lines from another poem(s) and includes them verbatim as part of its 14 lines. In the early stage of the infection, these lines were taken from well-known poems. As the infection proceeded, coronasonnets began taking lines only from other coronasonnets.
- The coronasonnet is asymptomatic for the first 8 lines, but from line 9 onwards, every word is written in all caps.
- The coronasonnet ends with social distancing, with more and more space in each line. From lines 12-14, it only uses one-syllable words.


Further variants of the coronasonnet are as follows:
#JustAFlu: the coronasonnet follows all the rules of the normal sonnet form.
#PanicBuying: the coronasonnet has longer lines than normal and is written in iambic hexameter or longer.
#WillFinishInSummer: the coronasonnet ends in summer with everyone dying.
#CureWorseThanDisease: the coronasonnet already includes two lines of the original infection, but now repeats them again in all caps. 
#HeardImmunity: the coronasonnet is recorded in audio/video form with the poet reading out the coronasonnet.
#ContentTracing: the coronasonnet cites/references where it got its 2 lines from.

Examples[edit]

Contact-tracing tally for 31 Mar 2020 - 9 known cases with 0 deaths. 4 of the 9 cases are local transmission.

There is one established local cluster - Amy Walters with 2 infections.
There is one established international cluster - W.B. Yeats with 3 infections. Citizens are urged to avoid unnecessary travel to W.B. Yeats.

Case 1: Quarantined Jock bids his Gains be at Peace by Kevin Kwong, which was content-traced to "Michael Robartes bids His Beloved be at Peace" by W.B. Yeats

Case 2: DO NOT FILL ME WITH YOUR RNA by Low Kian Seh, which was content-traced to "FILL ME WITH YOUR MICRONUTRIENTS" by Amy Walter (local-transmission)

Case 3: THERE, I DID IT by Kok Wei Liang, which was content-traced to the ACS School Anthem, though the veracity of this infection is undergoing audit.

Case 4: 377A by Skylar Yap, which was content-traced to Charles Baudelaire's Au Lecteur

Case 5: STREISAND EFFECT AS A LEADER'S PORTRAIT by Joses Ho, which was content-traced to Barbara Streisand's twitter feed.

Case 6: ISOLATED (FALSE) ALARM by Grace Yaw, which was content-traced to W.B. Yeats' The Wing Among The Reeds.

Case 7: Distancing by Toh Hsien Min, which was content-traced to Case 1, and W.B. Yeats' The Rose Of Battle.

Case 8: "in the middle of the ending" by Elizabeth Fong, which was content-traced to "WHEN THE WORLD STOPS ENDING" by Amy Walter (local-transmission).

Case 9: An Ailing Man's Desertion by Celeste Miyana, which was content-traced to W.B. Yeats' The Circus-Animal's Desertion.

Case 10: FARAWAY SO CLOSE by Alvin Pang, which was content-traced to Case 7 (local-transmission).