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Fixed Form Poetry

Fixed Form Poetry. The English Sonnet. The English sonnet has the simplest and most flexible pattern of all sonnets, consisting of 3 quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g

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Fixed Form Poetry

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  1. Fixed Form Poetry

  2. The English Sonnet • The English sonnet has the simplest and most flexible pattern of all sonnets, consisting of 3 quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet: • a b a bc d c de f e fg g • Each quatrain develops a specific idea, but one closely related to the ideas in the other quatrains. • Not only is the English sonnet the easiest in terms of its rhyme scheme, but it is the most flexible in terms of the placement of the volta. • The most essential element of the sonnet is the volta or turn. • In an English sonnet, this occurs between lines 8&9 similar to the Italian but it can also be delayed to occur between lines 12&13, often right before the final couplet. • Rhyme scheme and interpretation of tone will help identify the volta.

  3. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

  4. The Italian Sonnet • The Italian sonnet is divided into two sections by two different groups of rhyming sounds. The first 8 lines is called the octave and rhymes: • a b b a a b b a • The remaining 6 lines is called the sestet and can have either two or three rhyming sounds, arranged in a variety of ways: • c d c d c dc d d c d cc d e c d ec d e c e dc d c e d c • The exact pattern of sestet rhymes (unlike the octave pattern) is flexible. In strict practice, the one thing that is to be avoided in the sestet is ending with a couplet (dd or ee). • The most essential element of the sonnet is the volta or turn. • In an Italian sonnet, this occurs between lines 8&9, often illustrated by a change in rhyme.

  5. “London, 1802”By: William Wordsworth Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

  6. Villanelle • 19 line poem consisting of: • 5 tercets • 1 quatrain • Poets have used villanelles for a variety of subjects, but all good villanelles have two things in common. • First, villanelles have strong opening tercets, with the first and third lines providing a two-barreled refrain. • They also gradually build in tone and intensity from one stanza to the next.

  7. “The Ted Williams Villanelle”By: Wendy Cope Watch the ball and do your thing.This is the moment. Here's your chance.Don't let anybody mess with your swing.Its time to shine. You're in the ring.Step forward, adopt a winning stance,Watch the ball and do your thing,And while the ball is taking wing,Run without a backward glance.Don't let anybody mess with your swing.Don't let envious bastards bringYou down. Ignore the sneers, the can'ts.watch the ball and do your thing.Sing out, if you want to sing.Jump up, when you long to dance.Don't let anybody mess with your swing.Enjoy your talents. Have your fling.The seasons change. The years advance.Watch the ball and do your thing,And don't let anybody mess with your swing.

  8. Sestina • The sestina is a challenging form in which, rather than simply rhyming, the actual line-ending words are repeated in successive stanzas in a designated rotating order. • A sestina consists of six 6-line stanzas, concluding with a 3-line “envoi” which incorporates all the line-ending words, some hidden inside the lines. T • he prescribed pattern for using the 6 line-ending words is: • 1st stanza 1 2 3 4 5 62nd stanza 6 1 5 2 4 33rd stanza 3 6 4 1 2 54th stanza 5 3 2 6 1 45th stanza 4 5 1 3 6 26th stanza 2 4 6 5 3 1envoi 2--5 4--3 6--1

  9. I saw my soul at rest upon a day  As a bird sleeping in the nest of night,Among soft leaves that give the starlight way  To touch its wings but not its eyes with light;So that it knew as one in visions may,   And knew not as men waking, of delight.This was the measure of my soul’s delight;   It had no power of joy to fly by day,Nor part in the large lordship of the light;   But in a secret moon-beholden wayHad all its will of dreams and pleasant night,   And all the love and life that sleepers may.But such life’s triumph as men waking may   It might not have to feed its faint delightBetween the stars by night and sun by day,   Shut up with green leaves and a little light;Because its way was as a lost star’s way,   A world’s not wholly known of day or night. All loves and dreams and sounds and gleams of night   Made it all music that such minstrels may,And all they had they gave it of delight;   But in the full face of the fire of dayWhat place shall be for any starry light,   What part of heaven in all the wide sun’s way? Yet the soul woke not, sleeping by the way,   Watched as a nursling of the large-eyed night,And sought no strength nor knowledge of the day,   Nor closer touch conclusive of delight,Nor mightier joy nor truer than dreamers may,   Nor more of song than they, nor more of light.For who sleeps once and sees the secret light   Whereby sleep shows the soul a fairer wayBetween the rise and rest of day and night,   Shall care no more to fare as all men may,But be his place of pain or of delight,   There shall he dwell, beholding night as day.Song, have thy day and take thy fill of light   Before the night be fallen across thy way;Sing while he may, man hath no long delight. “Sestina”By: Algernon Swinburne

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