Download English 114 An Introduction to Sonnets Poetry (and sonnet

English 114
An Introduction to Sonnets
Poetry (and sonnet) Terminology:
1. Couplet – 2 line stanza
2. Quatrain - 4 line stanza
3. Sestet - 6 line stanza
4. Octave - 8 line stanza
5. Foot – the unit by which a line is measured. A foot consists of at least one stressed syllable.
Each foot pattern has a specific name (i.e. iamb, trochee, anapest) and the number of feet in
a line of poetry describes its meter (i.e. pentameter).
6. Meter – a rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is important to note where
a poet changes the meter or breaks the meter because that is the poet telling the audience to
pay attention (often times it signifies a change or a turning point).
7. Iamb – a type of meter where the pattern is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.
The iambic foot is represented by an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one.
o The rhythm can be written as: da DUM
o The da-DUM of a human heartbeat is the most common example of this rhythm.
8. Iambic pentameter – the most common type of meter consisting of 5 iambs. Each
line of a poem written in iambic pentameter is 10 syllables long.
o A standard line of iambic pentameter is five iambic feet in a row:
da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM
o For example: If you would put the key inside the lock
This line has 5 feet, so it’s written in pentameter. And the stressing pattern is all
iambs:
if YOU | would PUT | the KEY | inSIDE | the LOCK
da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM
9. Free verse – poems that do not conform to patterns of rhyme or meter in any regular way.
10. Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter lines; the most common form of uncounted
unrhymed verse
Lyric Poetry and Sonnets
Lyric poems dwell on feelings. However, lyric poems may contain bits of a story (like a narrative
poem). Most sonnets are lyric poems. There have been many variations on the two basic sonnet
forms, but the two chief forms are:
1. The Italian (Petrachan) sonnet (named for the 14th century Italian poet Francesco
Petrarch who popularized the sonnet) has 14 lines and consists of an octave and a sestet.
2. The English (Shakespearean) sonnet has 14 lines written in iambic pentameter. It
consists of three four-line quatrains, alternately rhymed, and a couplet:
abab
cdcd
efef
gg
Shakespeare composed 154 sonnets. A Shakespearean sonnet is a compact argument that builds up
in a certain way. How it builds is related to its ideas, metaphors, or images and how it moves from
one to the next. In a Shakespearean sonnet, the argument builds like this:
 First quatrain: an explanation of the main idea/metaphor/image
 Second quatrain: main idea/metaphor/image is extended or complicated
 Third quatrain: main idea/metaphor/image is extended or complicated (*a possible volta at
line 9 if the turn is not at the couplet)
 Couplet: a summary or conclusion to the idea/metaphor/image (*a possible volta if the turn
is not at line 9)
*The turn, or volta, is a shift in the sonnet’s main idea/metaphor/image. It can be a subtle shift or a
complete reversal of direction, and is often marked by a change in the tone, mood, or viewpoint of
the poem. The turn is often introduced with a word like “but” or “yet”. There are times when
Shakespeare follows the Petrarchan way and places his turn on line 9. However, more often than not,
Shakespeare’s turns are to be found in the closing couplet.
There is also the modern sonnet. With the advent of free verse, the sonnet was seen as
somewhat old-fashioned and fell out of use for a time among some poets. Although the traditional
English sonnet follows a strict form, many writers from the 20th century to the present day have
sought to expand the sonnet form by loosening some of the requirements of the traditional sonnet.
So, how do we identify the modern sonnet?
 Generally, modern sonnet writers attempt to keep some of the traditional sonnet
characteristics while abandoning others.
 The most common modern sonnet is a 14 line lyric poem that does not employ iambic
pentameter or a set rhyme scheme.
 Other modern sonnets might use 10 or 12 lines of iambic pentameter instead of 14. Often
these shortened sonnets will still follow a set rhyme scheme and/or contain a distinct volta.
 Blank verse sonnets might also be considered modern. A blank verse sonnet employs
iambic pentameter, but does not rhyme.
The Facebook Sonnet
By Sherman Alexie
Welcome to the endless high-school
Reunion. Welcome to past friends
And lovers, however kind or cruel.
Let’s undervalue and unmend
4
The present. Why can’t we pretend
Every stage of life is the same?
Let’s exhume, resume, and extend
Childhood. Let’s play all the games
8
That occupy the young. Let fame
And shame intertwine. Let one’s search
For God become public domain.
Let church.com become our church
12
Let’s sign up, sign in, and confess
Here at the altar of loneliness.
14
Originally published in The New Yorker
Q: Is this sonnet English, Italian, or Modern?
Note: For Shakespeare’s sonnets, there will be a revision to your right-hand pages for the
reading journal for 1. Paraphrase the Poem. You will still be putting the sonnets into your own
words, but instead of writing a paragraph, you will put each line into your own words. Therefore,
you will have 14 lines written in your own words. It may help you to copy Shakespeare’s line in your
journal and then to put your paraphrased line underneath it.
Sonnet 18
By William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
4
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm’d;
8
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou growest:
12
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
14
In addition to the usual questions, answer this in your journal:
 What does “this” in line 14 refer to?
Sonnet 116
By William Shakespeare
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.
4
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.
8
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.
12
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
14
*ever-fixed mark = a lighthouse / sea-mark
*the star to every wandering bark = the star that guides every lost ship / the
North Star