Sonnets

1. Sonnets ENC 1102 Brown 7/18/2012

2. Fixed form • Sonnets use a fixed form of poetry, with a set pattern of lines, meter, rhyme and stanzas • A stanza is a grouping of lines, usually set off by space, and that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme. • Fixed form is contrasted with open form, which has no set pattern

3. Sonnets • Sonnets have been popular in English since the sixteenth century. • Two basic types: • Italian (or Petrarchan) • English (or Shakespearean)

4. Italian sonnets • Consist of two stanzas: • Octave: • Has an abbaabba rhyme scheme • Usually presents a situation, an attitude, or a problem • Sestet: • Rhyme scheme varies, but typical ones are cdecde, cdcdcd, and cdccdc • Usually comments on or resolves the situation established in the octave

5. John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, aAnd many goodly states and kingdoms seen; bRound many western islands have I been bWhich bards in fealty to Apollo hold. aOft of one wide expanse had I been told aThat deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne; bYet did I never breathe its pure serene bTill I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: aThen felt I like some watcher of the skies cWhen a new planet swims into his ken; dOr like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes cHe star'd at the Pacific — and all his men dLook'dat each other with a wild surmise — cSilent, upon a peak in Darien. d

6. English sonnet • Organized into 4 stanzas: • Three quatrains: • Typically rhyme ababcdcdefef • More suited for English because of fewer rhyming words • Couplet: • One pair of rhymed lines, gg • Usually brings about the conclusion or most pronounced break in theme

7. William shakespeare, sonnet 130 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; aCoral is far more red than her lips' red; bIf snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; aIf hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. bI have seen roses damask, red and white, cBut no such roses see I in her cheeks; dAnd in some perfumes is there more delight cThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks. dI love to hear her speak, yet well I know eThat music hath a far more pleasing sound; fI grant I never saw a goddess go; eMy mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: fAnd yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare gAs any she belied with false compare. g

8. What properties of a sonnet do you see in the following poem?

9. Edna st.vincent Millay, I will put chaos into fourteen lines I will put Chaos into fourteen linesAnd keep him there; and let him thence escapeIf he be lucky; let him twist, and apeFlood, fire, and demon --- his adroit designsWill strain to nothing in the strict confinesOf this sweet order, where, in pious rape,I hold his essence and amorphous shape,Till he with Order mingles and combines.Past are the hours, the years of our duress,His arrogance, our awful servitude:I have him. He is nothing more nor lessThan something simple not yet understood;I shall not even force him to confess;Or answer. I will only make him good.

10. What about this one?

11. Gerard manleyhopkins, God’s grandeur The world is charged with the grandeur of God.     It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;     It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;     And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;     And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. And for all this, nature is never spent;     There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black West went     Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs — Because the Holy Ghost over the bent     World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.