Job Seeker’s Sonnet 2

An application for a senior role in the Sustainability Department of Acme Corporation,  world leader in widget design & manufacturing, a subsidiary of W.E Coyote & Sons.

Dear sir, madame or whom it may concern,

I write in search of gainful employment.

Reading your ad tells me what I can earn,

Perhaps stall foreclosure with a payment!

A vibrant culture and staff engagement

conjures up thoughts of a monthly meeting,

where rather than yawns of disagreement,

there’ll be laughter, hugs, fine wine and singing!

Recycling and sustainable living,

my focus shown right here, in this letter,

up-cycled words I am delivering,

savvy, resourceful lateral thinker.

Adjectives that best fit? I give you three:

qualified, skilled and expert, yeah- hire me!

Following an earlier cover letter I wrote (Job Seeker Sonnet 1), I was advised by Robert Okaji to revise the Shakespearean sonnet into a Spenserian sonnet, to improve my chances of securing a job. Fingers crossed! This post is a prime example of why I shouldn’t hit “publish” too soon- I have since revised for the umpteenth time! I’m happier with it now, particularly the fact that I no longer rhyme “me” with “me” – I also made other changes post- publishing for a better flow.

39 thoughts on “Job Seeker’s Sonnet 2”

    1. I like ‘out of the box thinker’ – I would need to beef it up to meet the syllable count though. Spenserian sonnet has the rhyme scheme ababbcbccdcdee 14 lines in all, with each line having 10 syllables.

      Hmm, I hadn’t realised the shakespearean sonnet also had a 10 syllable rule- then there are rules about the structure of the story throughout the poem. Too many rules!

      Do you follow a particular structure with your poetry?

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      1. I’ve done a couple of sonnets but I find that I often follow a scheme of abcb (is that correct, so the second and fourth rhyme) with 4 accented syllables in a and c and 3 in the b’s. When I deviate from that the poem usually doesn’t come together as well, or it just starts to follow that structure anyway. I should really experiment more with other structures though.

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      2. Yeah, that means the 2nd and 4th are rhyming. It feels quite intuitive when you read a poem to know whether it works or it doesn’t- I wonder which came first- the rules someone made up at some point or the ‘rightness’ in some structures that someone put their name to. My favourite that I’ve experimented with so far is the tanka, but normally I like to write without rhyme but some reason.

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      3. That is interesting about the whole ‘rules’ thing. I am still learning about scanning poetry and was a bit frustrated by it at first. I still bend the rules but I see that it improved my writing. Yes, I’ve done some tankas and haikus, but obviously am the opposite, partial to rhyming verse.

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      4. I had no idea about scanning poetry till your comment! Well, I still have no idea- but good to know there is yet another thing to learn as soon as I find or make time for it. I’ve found that rules improve my writing too, because they force me to make every word count- I’m prone to rambling otherwise (as in my long comments and wall’s of text :)) . I don’t think I’ve ever read a non rhyming verse on your blog.

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      5. I’ve written a couple. But, yeah, a lot of people have told me to just write free verse because then you really don’t have to worry about scanning, but I think if you’re doing humor it works better with rhyme.

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      6. I agree, I think humour works well in rhyme cause the reader expects one thing or can guess at a possible rhyme and then get totally thrown off, kinda like a paraprosdokian. I’ve really enjoyed discussing poetry and structure with you- now for a real life job application…

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    1. Thanks! It actually indirectly got me a job. I posted it on LinkedIn (my approach to LinkedIn isn’t overly corporate) and I’m pretty sure it reminded a contact who’d told me they’d let me know when a job came up at their company. Seeing as applications closed the day after she let me know, I think I would have otherwise missed out! I start on Monday.

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      1. Insidious, aren’t they? They inserted themselves before I knew it. And in honor of your new job, I used the sonnet form. 🙂 It’s more of a poetry “sweatshop,” but at least the proprietor provides beer in the evenings.

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      2. Oh no! I made the comment in the wrong place! Was intended for under your post. Beer in exchange for poetry sounds like a good deal. Wow, I feel even more honoured now! So terrible of me not to recognise a sonnet from a garden variety poem!

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  8. If I could only find someone else in this sweatshop-of-one to pay for the beer! The sonnet is a bit difficult to recognize in this case – the end rhymes are mostly hidden with enjambment and context. A fun thing to play with. 🙂

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      1. So glad you are on board! Start is immediately, lunch breaks as long and as often as you want and yes, the job is sitting on a terrace overlooking the sea writing all day and leaving inspired comments on other people’s blogs 🙂 ❤

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