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Shakespearean Sonnets

Shakespearean Sonnets. Where they came from, what they are, and how we break them apart. Agenda. Origin of Shakespeare’s Sonnets Cultural Use of Sonnets Shakespeare’s Individuality Petrarch v. Shakespeare Petrarchan Structure Shakespearean Structure. Where did the sonnet come from?.

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Shakespearean Sonnets

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  1. ShakespeareanSonnets Where they came from, what they are, and how we break them apart.

  2. Agenda • Origin of Shakespeare’s Sonnets • Cultural Use of Sonnets • Shakespeare’s Individuality • Petrarch v. Shakespeare • Petrarchan Structure • Shakespearean Structure

  3. Where did the sonnet come from? Cultural Context

  4. Origin of Shakespeare’s Sonnets • Sonnet first created in 13th century Italy • 100 years later, Petrarch redefines sonnets • Develops a specific structure (Petrarchan Sonnet) • All chronicle his passionate, complex emotions for “Laura” • This point on, all sonnets focus on “Courtly Love” and subsequent emotions: • Jealousy, Desire, Lust, etc. • Typically contain a conflict: • Intellect v. emotion • Restraint v. passion

  5. Cultural Use of Sonnets • 16th century Britain, Petrarchan sonnets appear • Wyatt and Surrey are first to make popular • Modified the rhyme scheme—this structure used by Shakespeare • We now call it the “Shakespearean Sonnet” • Sonnets were “high society” • Rigid structure, formal declarations of love/honor/etc. • “High Society” begins to commission sonnets from poets • Sonnet writing becomes lucrative • Similar to modern-day songwriting or ghost writing

  6. Shakespeare’s Individuality • Shakespearean drama was typically anti “high society” constraints • Plays have little restriction of language, content, etc. • Shakespeare’s sonnets, however, perfectly conform • Formal structure allows creative wordplay • Turns content (“Courtly Love”) on its head • New themes and conflicts: • Tradition v. “new” love • Challenges the traditional “unapproachable, exalted lady” • Infuses homoerotic and adulterous passions • Sonnets 1-126: idealized, painful love for femininely-beautiful, well-born male youth • Sonnets 127-152: unidealized, ultimately bitter affair with a darkly attractive, unaristocratic “mistress”

  7. The evolution of structure (it’s important!) Petrarch v. Shakespeare

  8. Petrarchan Sonnets 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. • 14 Lines • Octave--rigid rhyme • abbaabba • Sestet--flexible pattern • cdecde • Traditionally written in Iambic Pentameter

  9. Petrarchan Sonnets 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. • Octave and Sestet have specific purposes • Octave—express desire, problem • Sestet—comment or solve problem • “Volta” marks tone shift

  10. Shakespearean Sonnets 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 dimmed, And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed; 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. • 14 Lines • 3 Quatrains & Couplet • ababcdcdefefgg • Iambic Pentameter

  11. Shakespearean Sonnets 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 dimmed, And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed; 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. • Quatrains • Smaller groups • Allows flexibility of ideas • Logical order • Contrasting theme/images • Couplet • Provides a “beat” • Almost like poet comes to a sudden conclusion • Add. Insight or thought

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