Recently, I entered an Arts and Sciences competition at an SCA event. The category was Performing Arts, Original Composition. So I wrote a sonnet in the Elizabethan form circa 1590s-1600 (commonly called the Shakespearean sonnet style, although as I showed in my documentation, he did not create this form, he simply popularized it). While I didn’t win anything, people in the audience enjoyed it. And my real goal is to use it as an example for an Arts and Sciences competition I’m running later in the year where the category is Performing Arts, Sonnet in a Period Style.<\/p>\n
Here’s my poem:<\/p>\n
To document one\u2019s art or sciences entry, it is not hard:
\nSimply tell how you made the thing, step by step.
\nStart with the period and place, this detail don’t discard.
\nThen describe your materials and tools, how you prepped —<\/p>\n
Did you use modern machines or use your own hands?
\nWere historical materials available or out of reach?
\nExplain your reasoning, your research, what you planned.
\nWe cannot read your mind, so your paper must speak.<\/p>\n
It’s nice to include pictures that show the item in process,
\nBut, even better, make note of the books and resources
\nThat informed your research — history is the root of this contest!
\nDo tell us all what you studied, the classes, the courses.<\/p>\n
Finally, please type up your documentation, copies make three,
\nSo each judge can read. Now it wasn’t that hard, I don’t think, at least.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently, I entered an Arts and Sciences competition at an SCA event. The category was Performing Arts, Original Composition. So I wrote a sonnet in the Elizabethan form circa 1590s-1600 (commonly called the Shakespearean sonnet style, although as I showed in my documentation, he did not create this form, he simply popularized it). While I<\/p>\n