Sonnets

“Both kinds: Country and Western!”

Petrachian / Italian

• Form– A lyric poem that is 14 lines long– divided into two quatrains (or an octet) and a

six-line “sestet,” – rhyme scheme abba abba cdecde (or cdcdcd)– Iambic pentameter

• Content– Octet establishes problem– Sestet delivers solution– Volta (turn) in the 9th line marks the shift from one idea to the next

Spenserian

• Form– three quatrains and a final couplet– rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee– iambic pentameter.

• Content– Each quatrain develops related ideas– Couplet presents commentary or a new idea– Volta can be in 9th line or in couplet

Shakespearean / English

• Form– three quatrains and a final couplet– rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg– iambic pentameter.

• Content– Each quatrain develops related ideas– Couplet presents commentary or a new idea– Volta is often in the couplet

Iambic Pentameter

• A type of meter in poetry, in which there are five iambs to a line. – Iambs= a metrical foot of two syllables, one

short (or unstressed) and one long (or stressed). • There are four iambs in the line “Come live/ with me/ and be/ my love,” from a poem by Christopher Marlowe. (The stressed syllables are in bold.)

• An example of an iambic pentameter line from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is

• ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /– “But soft!/ What light/ through yon/der win/dow breaks?”

Meter Patterns

• Iambus (iambic) ^ / What light

• Trochee (trochaic) / ^ Jack and

• Anapest (anapestic) ^ ^ /on the bridge

• Dactyl (dactylic) / ^ ^Over the

• Spondee (spondaic) / / boom boom

• Pyrrhus (pyrrhic) ^ ^ of the

A Little Quiz

• 1. How many syllables in one line of a sonnet?

• 2. How many syllables total?

• 3. What is the key difference between an Italian and an English sonnet?

• 4 Identify the meter of the following line:

Jack and Jill went up a hill