Drama Terms Continued.

41. Sonnet

42. Lyric Poetry

43. Iamb

44. Iambic Pentameter

45. Rhyme Scheme

46. Petrarchan Sonnet

47. Shakespearean Sonnet

THE SONNET(little sound or little song)

A sonnet is

a lyric poem consisting of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter with a definite rhyme scheme and a definite thought structure

Lyric Poem

Deals with emotions, feelings

Iamb

a metrical foot consisting ofan unaccented syllable (U)followed by an accented syllable (/)

U /

a gain (1 iamb)

U / U /

im mor tal ize (2 iambs)

Iambic Pentameter

•A line of poetry that consists of five iambs

U / U / U / U / U /One day I wrote her name u pon the strand, U / U / U / U / U /But came the waves and wash ed it a way: U / U / U / U / U /A gain I wrote it with a sec ond hand, U / U / U / U / U /But came the tide, and made my pains his prey

Edmund Spenser, Amoretti, Sonnet 75

Rhyme Scheme

A pattern of rhyming lines in a poem or song. Letters are used to identify the rhyming pattern.

There once was a big brown cat      a                  That liked to eat a lot of mice.         b                   He got all round and fat                   a                  Because they tasted so nice.            b

Rhyme Scheme contd.

What is the rhyme scheme of the following:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,               Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—                    Only this and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.Eagerly I wished the morrow; -- vainly I had sought to borrowFrom my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore—For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—                    Nameless here for evermore.

Petrarchan Sonnet

Named after Francisco Petrarch, an Italian Poet

Has a rhyme scheme of:

abba, abba, cd, cd, cd or

abba, abba, cde, cde

Petrarchan Sonnet contd.

The poem is divided into two sections by the two differing rhyme groups. A change from one rhyme group to another signifies a change in subject matter. This change occurs at the beginning of line 9 in the Italian sonnet and is called the volta, or "turn"; the turn is an essential element of the sonnet form, perhaps the essential element. It is at the volta that the second idea is introduced.

Petrarchan Sonnet Topics

Love at first sight Unfulfilled love The lady is ideally beautiful The lover is suffering Poet acknowledges self as a sufferer

Petrarchan Sonnet Example

Blest be the day, and blest the month and year, Season and hour and very moment blest, The lovely land and place where first possessed By two pure eyes I found me prisoner; And blest the first sweet pain, the first most dear, Which burnt my heart when Love came in as guest; And blest the bow, the shafts which shook my breast, And even the wounds which Love delivered there. Blest be the words and voices which filled grove And glen with echoes of my lady’s name; The sighs, the tears, the fierce despair of love; And blest the sonnet-sources of my fame; And blest that thought of thoughts which is her own, Of her, her only, of herself alone!

Shakespearean (English) Sonnet

First used by Henry Howard in the early 1500s.

Shakespeare made it famous Has a rhyme scheme of

abab cdcd efef gg

Shakespearean (English) Sonnet contd.

Each quatrain develops a specific idea, but one closely related to the ideas in the other quatrains.

Not only is the English sonnet the easiest in terms of its rhyme scheme, calling for only pairs of rhyming words rather than groups of 4, but it is the most flexible in terms of the placement of the volta.

Shakespearean (English) Sonnet Topics

More realistic attitudes towards love Did not adhere to Petrarch’s idea of beauty

and love

Learning to Write a Sonnet -Denise Rodgers

The sonnet form is old and full of dustAnd yet I want to learn to write one well.To learn new forms and grow is quite a must,But I will learn it quickly, I can tell.

And so I sit, today, with pen in hand,Composing three new quatrains with a rhyme.The rhythm flows like wind at my command.The A-B-A-B form consumes my time.

But I’m not done until there’s fourteen lines.One ending couplet, after three quatrains.I’ve tried to write this new form several times.The effort’s huge; I have to rack my brain.

But I persist, my fourteen lines now done.I wrote my poem; my sonnet work is won.

Shakespeare Sonnet Example

Full many a glorious morning have I seenFlatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,Kissing with golden face the meadows green,Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;Anon permit the basest clouds to rideWith ugly rack on his celestial face,And from the forlorn world his visage hide,Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace: Even so my sun one early morn did shine,With all triumphant splendour on my brow;But out, alack, he was but one hour mine,The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now.Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth;Suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth.

Explicating a Poem

1. What is the structure of the poem?2. What is the rhyme scheme?3. What type of meter does the poem employ?4. What words do you need to look up?5. Who is the speaker?6. What is the poem about?7. What literary devices are used?8. What would an accurate paraphrase of the poem

be?

Explicate the following poem:

My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lip's red;If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun,If hair 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;In some perfumes there is more delightThan the breath with which my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I know,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.