The Massachusetts Poetry Festival 2017

Swatantra Sonnet is a new sonnet form introduced by Hassanal Abdullah, a Bangladeshi-American poet, in the mid-nineties. Unlike Shakespearean and Patrarcan Sonnets, the Swatantra form uses a seven-line stanza pattern and abcdabc efgdefg rhyming scheme. The poet wrote more than 200 of such sonnets in Bengali and translated about a 100 sonnets into English preserving rhyme and rhythm. In this session, the poet, along with the panelists, will demonstrate the form and style by showing how anyone, who is interested, will be able to write a sonnet using this new form. Keeping Shakespearean and Patrarcan sonnet forms side by side with his own, the poet will also display several techniques of writing this sonnets. 'Swatantra Sonnet: Bengali with English Translations by the Author' (Feral Press and CCC, 2017) will be used as a supporting book during the session.