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Sonnets. The Literary Legacy of the Renaissance. History. Francesco Petrarch (Italian) Wrote Canzoniere 366 sonnets dedicated to Laura Invented the form Thomas Wyatt adapted it to English Shakespeare Milton. Sonnets
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Sonnets The Literary Legacy of the Renaissance
History • Francesco Petrarch (Italian) • Wrote Canzoniere • 366 sonnets dedicated to Laura • Invented the form • Thomas Wyatt adapted it to English • Shakespeare • Milton
Sonnets A lyric poem of fourteen iambic pentameter lines with a fixed-scheme of rhyming Italianor Petrarchan English or Shakespearean Originated in Sicily Model for Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare Form
Form Petrarchan sonnets: Shakespearean sonnets: Three quatrains (four lines) abab cdcd efef And a concluding couplet (two lines) gg • two parts: • an octave (8 lines) • rhyming abbaabba • followed by a sestet (6 lines) • rhyming cdecde or some variant.
Form • Spenserian Sonnet • Rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee • Nine line stanza in Faerie Queen: Ababbcbcc • Less important historically
Reading a poem academically • Look at the poem’s title • Read the poem straight through • Look for patterns. • Identify the narrator (or speaker) • Use writing to think • Read the poem again • Find the crucial moments. • Consider form and function. • Look at the language of the poem. • Go deeper or call it quits.
Questions to consider • When reading these sonnets, consider the following: • How does a poet use rhymes and rhyme scheme to reinforce what the poem says? • How does a poet take advantage of the turn from octave to sestet, or the shift from one quatrain to another? • How does the final couplet function? • How do the pasterns created by rhyme relate to other patterns created by grammar, word order, the positing or grouping of images, or the movement of logical argument?
Edmund Spenser • “The poet’s poet” • Came into service of prominent English noblemen, including Elizabeth’s favorites • The Faerie Queen • Uses medieval myth and legend to assess Elizabethan age