Download Sonnets

Shakespeare’s Sonnet
Style
An iamb (1)
• is a unit of rhythm consisting of an
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable.
• 'annoy,'' ''fulfill,'' ''pretend,'' ''regard,'' and
''serene'' are all iambs
An iamb (2)
• a final unstressed syllable of one word
followed by an initial stressed syllable of
the next word.
• ..I will not fail: 'tis twenty years till then.
.I have forgot why I did call thee back.
pentameter
• 'pent‘-five. 'pentagon'' ''pentathlon
• five iambs iambic pentameter
Shakespearean sonnet
Iambic Pentameter
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fourteen lines
three quatrains with four lines each
establishes a theme or problem
the couplet with two lines- resolves it
rhyme scheme--abab cdcd efef.gg
Italian Petrarchan sonnet Style
• rhyming octave (abbaabba)
• octave's purpose is to introduce a problem,
express a desire, reflect on reality, or
otherwise present a situation that causes
doubt or conflict within the speaker
• rhyming sestet (cdcdcd) reinforce effect
Italian Petrarchan sonnet Theme
• to a concept of unattainable love. It was first
developed by the Italian humanist and
writer, Francesco Petrarca.
• Conventionally Petrarchan sonnets depict
the addressed lady in hyperbolic terms and
present her as a model of perfection and
inspiration
Petrarch’s famous sonnet sequence
• to an idealized and idolized mistress named Laura.
In the sonnets, Petrarch praises her beauty, her
worth, and her perfection using an extraordinary
variety of metaphors based largely on natural
beauties.
• In Shakespeare’s day, these metaphors had already
become cliche (as, indeed, they still are today),
but they were still the accepted technique for
writing love poetry.
S Vs. P(1)
• The result was that poems tended to make
highly idealizing comparisons between
nature and the poets’ lover that were, if
taken literally, completely ridiculous. My
mistress’ eyes are like the sun; her lips are
red as coral; her cheeks are like roses, her
breasts are white as snow, her voice is like
music, she is a goddess. /
S VS. P(2)
• or instance, are written not to a perfect
woman but to an admittedly imperfect man,
and the love poems to the dark lady are
anything but idealizing (“My love is as a
fever, longing still / For that which longer
nurseth the disease” is hardly a Petrarchan
conceit
• hat’s strange—my mistress’ eyes aren’t at
all like the sun. Your mistress’ breath
smells like perfume? My mistress’ breath
reeks compared to perfume. In the couplet,
then, the speaker shows his full intent,
which is to insist that love does not need
these conceits in order to be real; and
women do not need to look like flowers or
the sun in order to be beautiful.
'anti-Petrarchan'
• Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18
• may have revealed the mistress to be ugly
and unworthy.
• Best love poem
Sum-up
• The sonnet is an example of accentualsyllabic verse. This means that the form has
a fixed number of stresses (or accents) and
syllables in each line.
• 14 lines
• Usually iambic pentameter
• Contains a marked shift in tone or argument
called a volta
Two main types
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Petrarchan (also called Italian)
Octave (8 lines) (abba abba) or (abab cdcd)
Sestet (six lines) (cdc cdc) or (cde cde)
The rhyme scheme has several variations
Shakespearean
Three quatrains & a final couplet (or all 14
lines in one stanza)
• Rhyme scheme (abab cdcd efef gg) (varies)
• Final rhyming couplet is defining feature
Test Your Knowledge
• 1. How many lines does a sonnet usually
have?
• A. 12
• B. 14
• C. 16
• 2. What is a volta?
•
a.The unstressed syllable of an iamb
b.The Italian name for sonnet
c.A shift in tone or perspective in a sonnet
The last two lines rhyming lines of a sonnet
• 3. What does iambic pentameter mean?
• A. A line with five pairs of syllables
(stressed, unstressed)
B. A line with six stressed syllables
C. A line with five pairs of syllables
(unstressed, stressed)
D. None of the above
• 4. The following poem is an example of a
Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet?
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True
• False
• What lips my lips have kissed, and where and why
• What lips my lips have kissed, and where and why
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that no again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
• Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
• by Edna St. Vincent Millay
2. Create a sonnet using an old photo
• Goal: The goal of this exercise is to
combine the descriptive nature of a
photograph with the dramatic tension
inherent in the sonnet.
• Materials: Find an old photograph that has
some personal meaning to you. Look at the
photo and brainstorm words for your poem
by drawing thought bubbles on the page.
When you feel that there is a pattern or idea
emerging, begin writing.
• Form: Compose a sonnet using iambic
pentameter and either the Petrarchan rhyme
scheme (abbaabba | cdcdcd) or the
Shakespearean one (abab cdcd | efef gg) Put
the volta after the eighth line.
• Things to remember: There are many
ways to express a volta. You can go from
past to present, from broad to specific, from
complex diction to simple words. Be
creative. It doesn't have to be a stark
contrast; a subtle shift is often just as
effective.
• Try to keep within the format, but don't be
rigid about meter or rhyme scheme. It's OK
to experiment and play with the form!
Rhyming words
• at, bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat that
• day, lay, may, pay, play, say, stay, tray, way
• be, he, key, knee, Li, me, see, she, ski, tea, three, tree,
we
• bit, fit, hit, lit, sit
• get, jet, let, met, net, pet, set, wet, yet
• back, Jack, pack, sack
• book, cook, look, shook, took
• do, knew, new, Sue, too, to , two, who, Wu, you, zoo
• go, Joe, low, no, know, row, so , toe
• by, die, guy, hi, lie, my, pie, sky, tie, try, why
Exception to Shakespeare’s Sonnets
• Only three of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets do
not conform to this structure:
• Sonnet 99, which has 15 lines;
• sonnet 126 , which has 12 lines;
• sonnet 145, which is written in iambic
tetrameter
Example –sonnet 130 (to a young Man)
• Quatrain 1 (four-line stanza)
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A
B
A
B
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:
• Comment: In Shakespeare's time, May (Line 3) was
considered a summer month.
Quatrain 2 (four-line stanza)
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C
D
C
D
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;
• Comment:."Every fair" may also refer to every fair
woman, who "declines" because of aging or bodily
changes.
Quatrain 3 (four-line stanza)
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E
F
E
F
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:
Couplet (two rhyming lines)
• G
• G
So long as men can breathe or eyes can SEE,
So long lives this and this gives life to THEE.
Theme-Sonnet 130
• the first two lines of Stanza 1: that the young man's
radiance is greater than the sun's.
• the second two lines of Stanza 1 and all of Stanza 2 to the
inferior qualities of the sun.
• In Stanza 3, he says the young man's brilliance will never
fade because Sonnet XVIII will keep it alive.
• He then sums up his thoughts in the ending couplet.
Group Presentation
• 1. Recite together
• 2. Find rhyming iambic pentameter
• 3. How is the theme developed in your own
words?
• 4. Write your own Sonnets
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Goodbye