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Sonnets. Sonnets, in general. Italian sonetto = “little sound or song” Many sonnets address the subject of LOVE. They tend to address a specific person and are meticulously crafted in a purposeful sequence. Three types of sonnets provide the model for all others Petrarchan Shakespearean
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Sonnets, in general • Italian sonetto = “little sound or song” • Many sonnets address the subject of LOVE. • They tend to address a specific person and are meticulously crafted in a purposeful sequence. • Three types of sonnets provide the model for all others • Petrarchan • Shakespearean • Spenserian
Poetic Lines • rhythm: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line; the “beat.” • meter: the number of feet in a line. • feet:combinations of syllables.
Determining Meter In English, the major feet are: iamb (^/) ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / The falling out of faithful friends, renewing is of love trochee (/^) / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ Double, double toil and trouble anapest (^^/) ^ ^ / ^ ^ / ^ ^ / I am monarch of all I survey dactyl (/^^) / ^ ^ / ^ ^ Take her up tenderly One Foot = monometer Two Feet = Dimeter Three Feet = Trimeter Four Feet = Tetrameter Five Feet = Pentameter Six Feet = Hexameter Seven Feet = Heptameter Eight Feet = Octameter Nine Feet = Nonameter
Iambic Pentameter _____ feet of _________s da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM
Francesco Petrarca [July 20, 1304 - July 19, 1374] • Born in Italy. • Studied law in France in 1316, but his passion was for Latin literature and writing. • From 1327 to 1368, he wrote 366 poems, 317 of which were sonnets, expressing his love for “Laura.”
Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnets,structure • 14 lines, divided into 2 stanzas • An octave (8 lines) • A sestet (6 lines) • Iambic Pentameter • Rhyme scheme abba, abba, cdecde, cdcdcd or cddcdd
Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnets,content • The octave raises an issue, expresses a doubt, or makes an observation. • Around the 8th and 9th lines a volta, or turn, occurs, marking a shift in the sonnet. • This allows the sestet to provide a resolution to the issue/doubt or comments on the observation.
Petrarchan Sonnet It was the day when the sun's heavy rays Grew pale in pity of his suffering Lord, When I fell captive, lady, to the gaze Of your fair eyes, fast bound in love's strong cord. No time had I wherein to make defense Or seek a shelter from Love's sudden blows; I walked secure, no harm perceiving, whence My griefs began amid the general woes. Love found me all disarmed, and through my eyes Where tears are wont to flow, he saw the way Wide open to my heart. His arrow flies And strikes the mark where it must ever stay. Scant honor his to wound me thus, nor show To you, well armed against him, even his bow!
William Shakespeare [April 23, 1546 – April 23, 1616] • Born in Stratford-upon-Avon. • He was not incredibly educated, yet he was still the foremost dramatist of his time. • Composed 154 sonnets between 1593 and 1601; published in1609. • His sonnets (seem to) address a handsome, young friend and/or a rival poet and a malignant but fascinating "Dark Lady.”
Shakespearean (English) Sonnet,structure • 14 lines, divided into • three quatrains • a couplet • Iambic Pentameter • Rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Shakespearean (English) Sonnet,content • The 3 quatrains tend to discuss the subject in a consistent manner. • Typically, somewhere in the 3rd stanza there is a turn where the poem shifts. However, this also may occur at the start the couplet in line 13. • The final couplet plays a dramatic role, serving as a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of the previous three stanzas.
Sonnet 130 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 ow'st;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Edmund Spenser[1552-1599] • Also English • Attended Cambridge University • The Faerie Queene • Invented a nine line stanza
Spenserian Sonnet, structure • 14 lines, divided into • 3 quatrains • A couplet • Iambic Pentameter • Rhyme scheme ababbcbccdcdee
Spenserian Sonnet 75 One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Again I write it with a second hand, But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay, A mortal thing so to immortalize, For I myself shall like to this decay, And eek my name be wiped out likewise. Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: My verse, your virtues rare shall eternize, And in the heavens write your glorious name. Where whenas death shall all the world subdue, Our love shall live, and later life renew.