SonnetsSonnets

What is a Sonnet?What is a Sonnet?

A formal, structured poem

It traditionally focuses on the theme of love

Has appeared in many variations throughout history.

StructureStructure14 Lines

Uses Iambic Pentameter

Unstressed / Stressed Syllables (duh-Nuh)

5 Feet per line

ie. “Shall I compare thee to a summer day”

ie. “That junkyard fell down the side of the hill”

Italian / Petrarchan Italian / Petrarchan HistoryHistory

Developed in the 14th century by Petrarch, an Italian poet

The Octave (8 lines) describe a subject or introduces a problem

The Sestet (6 lines) comments on or resolves the problem

Italian / Petrarchan Italian / Petrarchan FormForm

Octave (first 8 lines) Rhyme Scheme: abba abba

Sestet (remaining 6 lines) Rhyme Scheme(s):

cdcdcd

cddc dc

cde cde

cdeced

cdcedc

““The World is too much With Us; Late and The World is too much With Us; Late and Soon” by Wordsworth (1806)Soon” by Wordsworth (1806)

The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Shakespearian or Elizabethan Sonnet Shakespearian or Elizabethan Sonnet HistoryHistory

in 1609 Shakespeare published a collection of 154 poems about life, love, etc.

Famous poems include “The Dark Lady,” which is famous for its ambiguity. Was she a black woman, a brunette, a prostitute?

Some sonnets are addressed to a male “beloved” -- Controversial and unclear if they were commissioned by a woman or a man sending them to a man.

Some sonnets may have addressed Elizabeth I (the Virgin Queen) who was often described as a male figure because of her strength and the fact that she didn’t marry.

Shakespearian or Shakespearian or Elizabethan Sonnet Elizabethan Sonnet

FormForm14 lines of iambic pentameter

3 quatrains (4 line stanzas) that provide examples of a theme or metaphorical statements

Quatrain’s rhyme scheme is abab

A rhyming couplet concludes the discussion of the topic

““Sonnet 127” by Sonnet 127” by ShakespeareShakespeare  In the old age black was not counted fair,

  Or if it were it bore not beauty's name:  But now is black beauty's successive heir,  And beauty slandered with a bastard shame,

  For since each hand hath put on nature's power,   Fairing the foul with art's false borrowed face,  Sweet beauty hath no name no holy bower,  But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.

  Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black,  Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem,  At such who not born fair no beauty lack,  Slandering creation with a false esteem,

    Yet so they mourn becoming of their woe,    That every tongue says beauty should look so.

Other Forms of Other Forms of SonnetsSonnets

Spenserian - Mixes Shakespearian and Petrarchan

Milton - Usually Italian in form but discusses morality and politics

Avant Garde - The only form requirement is 14 lines of poetry

Curtal Sonnet

Popularized by Hopkins, who wrote several love sonnets devoted to God

10 lines of iambic pentameter followed by one line of 5 syllables

Intricate rhyme scheme (abc abc dbcdc)

““Pied Beauty” Pied Beauty” by Hopkins (1884-1889)by Hopkins (1884-1889)

    Glory be to God for dappled things—         For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;             For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;     Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;         Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;             And áll trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

    All things counter, original, spáre, strange;         Whatever is fickle, frecklèd (who knows how?)             With swíft, slów; sweet, sóur; adázzle, dím;     He fathers-forth whose beauty is pást change:

                       Práise hím.

Sonnet Identification Sonnet Identification & Analysis Activity& Analysis ActivitySpenserian - Mixes Shakespearian and Petrarchan

Milton - Usually Italian in form but discusses morality and politics

Avant Garde - The only form requirement is 14 lines of poetry

Curtal Sonnet

Popularized by Hopkins, who wrote several love sonnets devoted to God

10 lines of iambic pentameter followed by one line of 5 syllables

Intricate rhyme scheme (abc abc dbcdc)