* The base form of sonnet has spawned MANY variations. So anything that kind of looks like one is usually related. My favorite is the 8-line indriso.
* For any rhymed, metered verse you should check those aspects. Rhymes should be perfect unless you are off-rhyming on purpose in a pattern. Meter should have a consistent numbers of syllables, although you may vary the stress and it's okay to have different syllables per line in a pattern (i.e. 8-7-8-7). Don't be afraid to count syllables on your fingers, I do that too.
* In poetry, charm outweighs technical skill, so if you can capture the mood then the poem usually works. You can learn technical skills as you go along. Learning how to find a good theme or tell a good story is much harder to learn if you haven't got it.
Re: fill - how to carry something between dreaming and waking
* For any rhymed, metered verse you should check those aspects. Rhymes should be perfect unless you are off-rhyming on purpose in a pattern. Meter should have a consistent numbers of syllables, although you may vary the stress and it's okay to have different syllables per line in a pattern (i.e. 8-7-8-7). Don't be afraid to count syllables on your fingers, I do that too.
* In poetry, charm outweighs technical skill, so if you can capture the mood then the poem usually works. You can learn technical skills as you go along. Learning how to find a good theme or tell a good story is much harder to learn if you haven't got it.
* Go to my Memories section and I've got several entries about poetry that you may find useful:
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=ysabetwordsmith&keyword=poetry&filter=all