THE SONNETCreative Writing I

CREATED BY FRANCESCO PETRARCHA WHO PUBLISHED

366 POEMS ABOUT HIS IDEALIZED LOVER, LAURA. IT

WOVE A NARRATIVE TALE FROM POEM TO POEM.

Petrarchan Sonnet

PETRARCHAN EXAMPLE

Soleasi Nel Mio Cor She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine,A noble lady in a humble home,And now her time for heavenly bliss has come,'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.The soul that all its blessings must resign,And love whose light no more on earth finds room,Might rend the rocks with pity for their doom,Yet none their sorrows can in words enshrine;They weep within my heart; and ears are deafSave mine alone, and I am crushed with care,And naught remains to me save mournful breath.Assuredly but dust and shade we are,Assuredly desire is blind and brief,Assuredly its hope but ends in death.

RULES OF PETRARCHA

14 line verse poem

The octave sets up a problem which the sestet then solves

Line 9 turns from the prior information (volta) using a transitional word (but, yet, etc)

The octave follows: ABBAABBA

The sestet can follow any of the following:• CDCDCD• CDDCDC• CDECDE• CDECED• CDCEDC

Often employs hyperbole

YO UR PETR AR CHAN SO NN ET: OVER THE TO P

Select a person who is imperfect

Create metaphors/similes to highlight their flaws

Build a Petrarchan sonnet that celebrates their flaws through figurative language in the octave

Decide whether or not to “love them anyway” within your sestet

CREATED BY EDMUND SPENSER, WHO WAS

MODIFYING PETRARCHA’S ORIGINAL FORM INTO

ENGLISH. HIS FORM DID NOT CATCH ON AS OTHERS DID.

Spenserian Sonnet

SPENSERIAN EXAMPLE

One day I wrote her name upon the strand;

But came the waves, and washed it away:

Again, I wrote it with a second hand;

But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

 

Vain man, said she, that dost in vain assay

A mortal thing so to immortalize;

For I myself shall like to this decay,

And eke my name be wiped out likewise.

 

Not so, quoth I; let baser things devise

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:

My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens write your glorious name.

 

Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue,

Our love shall live, and later life renew.

RULES OF SPENSER

14 line verse poem

Grouped as 3 quatrains and a couplet

Rhyme scheme is ABAB BCBC CDCD EE

The quatrains detail 3 distinct, but closely related ideas, then the couplet touches a different idea or conclusion, using a transitional word (but, yet, etc.)

YO UR SPENSERIAN SO N NET: ON L OVE

Since Spenser uses a lot of repeating sounds, you may write this one in another language – if you know one… (it must make sense in English, but need not follow the rhyme scheme in it)

Make a list of traits that romantic love should have

Choose three to SHOW within your three quatrains

Design your couplet as a reflection on what romantic love is to you as a whole

CREATED BY SHAKESPEARE, A CONTEMPORARY OF SPENSER,

WHO ALSO WORKED TO TRANSLATE PETRARCHAN

SONNETS SO THEY WORKED IN ENGLISH.

Shakespearean Sonnet

SHAKESPEAREAN EXAMPLE

SONNET 116

 Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

 O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

 

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

RULES OF SHAKESPEARE

14 line verse poem

Grouped as 3 quatrains and a couplet

Rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

The volta may fall either on line 9 or 13

YO U R SHAKESPEAR EANSO NNET: ON PO INT

Create a list of people who would have opposite opinions on a common subject (missionary/atheist on the power of prayer)

Select one pair to use and flesh out what their views on the topic would be

Select one side as the speaker’s voice shifting to the other opinion with the volta at line 9 (but you) shifting to the other view

The couplet can sum up, reflect on the other side, reiterate the initial point, etc.