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Contrasting Sonnet Forms: Petrarchan, Spenserian, and Shakespearean

Explore the three major types of sonnets: Petrarchan, Spenserian, and Shakespearean. Dive into the structure, rhyme schemes, and overall messages conveyed in each form.

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Contrasting Sonnet Forms: Petrarchan, Spenserian, and Shakespearean

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  1. Sonnets

  2. A sonnet shows two related, contrasting things or ideas (e.g. life vs. death; youth vs. old age) to communicate something about them (offer a message) 3 Major Types of Sonnets: Italian (Petrarchan) Spenserian (invented by Edmund Spenser) English (Shakespearian; after William Shakespeare)

  3. Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet "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.

  4. Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet -divided into two sections with two different rhyming patterns: -the first 8 lines is called an octave and rhymes: abbaabba -the remaining 6 lines is called the sestet and rhymes as one of the following: cdcdcdcdecdecdcedc cddcdccdeced The Petrarchan Sonnet never ends in a rhyming couplet!

  5. Message of Petrarchan Sonnet -this sonnet is divided into two distinct rhyming patterns (8 lines then 6 lines) -the “twist” or change in subject matter (volta)appears in line 9, when the rhyming pattern changes -e.g. in “London 1802” by Wordworth, the octave speaks of the corruption present in England, while the sestet remembers the honorable qualities of Milton that are now lost but needed in England

  6. Spenserian Sonnet "Sonnet LIV” by Edmund Spenser Of this World's theatre in which we stay, My love like the Spectator idly sits, Beholding me, that all the pageants play, Disguising diversely my troubled wits. Sometimes I joy when glad occasion fits, And mask in mirth like to a Comedy; Soon after when my joy to sorrow flits, I wail and make my woes a Tragedy. Yet she, beholding me with constant eye, Delights not in my mirth nor rues my smart; But when I laugh, she mocks: and when I cry She laughs and hardens evermore her heart. Whatthen can move her? If nor mirth nor moan, She is no woman, but a senseless stone.

  7. Spenserian Sonnet -invented by Edmund Spenser in the TheFaerieQueenewith the rhyming pattern: a b a b b c b c c d c d e e -the first three quatrains overlap in rhyme and develop a main idea, while the rhyming couplet at the end gives a different message (final comment) -line 9 often begins with “But” or “Yet” where the Petrarchan and Shakespearian sonnets would normally have the “twist” or “volta”, but there is no change in idea here (Spenser has more of a 12 than 2 line pattern) -Spencer’s Volta appears at line 13 then

  8. Shakespearian • Like the Petrarchan Sonnet, these sonnets are generally about love or philosophy. • This sonnet contains three quatrains (four lines with similar rhyming pattern) and ends with a rhyming couplet (two lines that rhyme together)

  9. Shakespearean Sonnet “Sonnet My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red, than her lips red:If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.I have seen roses damasked, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks;And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound:I grant I never saw a goddess go, My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,As any she belied with false compare.

  10. Rhyme Scheme for Shakespearean Sonnets • The rhyme scheme for a Shakespearean Sonnet is as follows: • a • b • a • b • b • c • b • c • c • d • c • d • e • e

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