Sonnets

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Sonnets
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What is a Sonnet?

• A formal, structured poem
• It traditionally focuses on the theme of love
• Has appeared in many variations throughout
  history.

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Structure

• 14 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

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Italian / Petrarchan History

• 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

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Italian / Petrarchan Form

• Octave (first 8 lines) Rhyme Scheme abba abba
• Sestet (remaining 6 lines) Rhyme Scheme(s)
• cdcdcd
• cddc dc
• cde cde
• cdeced
• cdcedc

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The World is too much With Us Late and 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.
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Shakespearian or Elizabethan Sonnet History

• 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 didnt marry.

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Shakespearian or Elizabethan Sonnet Form

• 14 lines of iambic pentameter
• 3 quatrains (4 line stanzas) that provide
  examples of a theme or metaphorical statements
• Quatrains rhyme scheme is abab
• A rhyming couplet concludes the discussion of the
  topic

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Sonnet 127 by Shakespeare
  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.
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Other Forms of Sonnets

• 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)

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Pied Beauty 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
piecedfold, 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.
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Sonnet Identification Analysis Activity

• 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)