Introduction to Sonnets

English and Italian Sonnets

Background of Sonnets• The first sonnets were written in 13th and 14th century Italy &

were love poems addressed to noble women or they honored their wealthy nobleman patrons who supported the poet.

There are different types of sonnets:

• English/Shakespearean • Italian/Petrarchian

Sonnets

English/Shakespearean Sonnet

• A 14 line poem made up of three quatrains and a couplet with a specific end-rhyme scheme.

• The beat of the poem is iambic pentameter.

William Shakespeare

What is Rhyme Scheme?

• The pattern of rhyme in a poem. • To identify rhyme scheme, assign a letter of

the alphabet to each rhymed sound at the end of a line.

• If that sound is repeated later on in the poem, that line receives the same letter

• Abab/cdcd/efef/gg

For example:

Shall I compare thee to a summers day A Though art more lovely and more temperate B Rough winds do shake the darling buds of may A And summer’s lease hath all too short a date B

For example:

• The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean Sonnet is abab/cdcd/efef/gg.

• Example:

Shall I compare thee to a summers day A Though art more lovely and more temperate B Rough winds do shake the darling buds of may A And summer’s lease hath all too short a date B

Example: Sonnet 129

What is a quatrain?

• Quatrain: a stanza or poem of four lines, usually with alternating rhymes

• Each quatrain is one unit of thought in the poem, similar to a paragraph in prose.

Shall I compare thee to a summers day A Though art more lovely and more temperate B Rough winds do shake the darling buds of may A And summer’s lease hath all too short a date B

What is a couplet?

• Two lines that rhyme and are of the same length

• In Shakespeare’s sonnets, the ending couplet comments on the preceding three quatrains.

• Example:So long as men can breathe or eyes can seeSo long lives this and this gives life to thee.

What is iambic pentameter?

• Meter is the measured, patterned arrangement of syllables, according to stress and length in a poem.

• The most common meter in English verse is the iamb, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Iambic Pentameter• Five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables• The rhythm in each line sounds like: ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-

BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM• Most of Shakespeare’s famous quotations fit into this rhythm• Each pair of syllables is called an iamb. Each iamb is made up

of one unstressed and one stressed beat (ba-BUM).

Examples:

• If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, / play on.

• Is this / a dag- / -ger I / see be- / fore me?

• I AM A PIRATE WITH A WOODEN LEG!

Why this form?

• Often used to develop a sequence of metaphors or ideas, one in each quatrain, while the couplet offers either a summary or a new take on the preceding images or ideas.

• The rhyme scheme, because of the way it directs the ear, reinforces the dramatic feel of the sonnet

More info…

Shakespeare subverts the traditional themes of love sonnets—the traditional love poems in praise of beauty and worth:

• for instance, some sonnets are believed to be written to a man

• the love poems to a woman are almost all bitter and negative

Organization of Sonnets

• The young man• The dark lady• The speaker

Who… The speaker expresses passionate concern and desire for the

young man, and praises his beauty. Sonnets 1-126 are addressed to the young man and discuss the effects of having great beauty and the responsibility of being beautiful. (The speaker is a dramatic, fictional character – NOT Shakespeare.)

• The dark lady is sexual, and faithless, characteristics in direct opposition to lovers in traditional poems. Sonnets 127-152are addressed to her and warn about the dangers of lust and love. The speaker loves her, lusts after her, and hates her too!

• Several sonnets compare the idealized love found in poems with the messy, complicated love found in real life. (art and artifice)

Symbols and Ideas

• Flowers• Trees• Stars• Weather• Seasons are symbols that are

used throughout the sonnets

• Death• Passage of Time• Art vs. Artificial

are ideas that are

repeated throughout the sonnets

Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets to “Mr. W. H.,” and the identity of this man remains unknown.

Here is a conventional breakdown of the sonnets• 1-17 urge the fair young man to marry and have kids; admiration, deference, and

possessiveness develop• 18-26 pay tribute to him. Sonnet 20 may indicate platonic love and rule out homosexual

implications, or not.• 27-32 indicate sorrow at an enforced separation.• 33-35, 40-42 concern the Dark Lady and the friend. • 36-39, 43-47 recount the friend's absence from London• 48-55 indicate the poet's removal from the friend. • 56-58, 61 form a group on loneliness.• 59-60, 62-65 are a series on time and beauty. • 66-70, 94-96 on the world's corruption.• 71-74, 81 brood upon death.• 75-77 praise the friend as the inspirer of verse.• 78-80, 82-86 reproach the friend for bestowing favors on the Rival Poet.• 87-93 regret loss of the friend's confidence• .97-103, 113-114 recount another absence of the friend.• 104-108, 115-116 are congratulatory.• 109-112, 116-126 seek the restoration of the friendship.• 127-128, 130 give taunting compliments to the Dark Lady.• 129, 146, 147, 152 bitterly reject her.• 135, 137, 143 pun on the name "Will," whether that's really his or a pen name.• 153, 154 are translations of Greek epigrams referring to the hot springs at Bath.