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THE SONNET
Italian and English Sonnet Forms
THE ITALIAN SONNET
• Sonnet form invented in 13th century Italy
• Italian poet Francesco Petrarch
• Poems dedicated to an unknown “Laura”
•
Idealized in Petrarch’s poems.
•
Seen as beautiful, ideally virtuous and permanently unavailable.
“PETRARCHAN CONVENTIONS”:
A Convention: Repeated theme or subject.
•
Love is excruciatingly painful
•
The beautiful and virtuous lady is cruel in rejecting the poet’s love
•
Love is likened to a religion which raises and inspires the lover.
•
Christian and mythological imagery is mixed together.
•
The eyes are “windows to the soul” and love begins at first sight.
•
The poet is subject to extremes of feeling and conflict—the “war within the
self”.
•
The poetry will outlive the poet.
THE ENGLISH SONNET
• Sir Thomas Wyatt (1502-42) and Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey
(1517-47)
• Also used religious imagery to:
• Convey the purity of lover’s passion
• Used Christian and pagan symbols.
• The English Sonnet made famous by:
• Sir Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare.
THE SONNET FORM
A 14 line poem written in Iambic Pentameter and a carefully patterned
rhyme scheme.
The Italian Sonnet:
• 14 lines broken into two sections:
•
An octave (8 lines) which rhymes abbaabba, and a sestet (6 lines) which rhymes cddcee.
•
Rhyme scheme: abbaabba cddcee
The English Sonnet:
• Consists of 14 lines broken up into 3 quatrains (4 lines) which rhymes
abab cdcd efef and a couplet (2 lines) which rhymes gg.
• Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
THE SONNET FORM--MEANING
• The poet uses the structure of the poem as part of the language.
• Can be divided into two sections:
• 1st section: Presents the theme, raises an issue or doubt
• 2nd Section: answers the question, resolves the problem or drives
home the poem’s point.
• The shift or change in the poem is called the turn or volta and
helps move forward the emotional action of the poem quickly.
THE ITALIAN SONNET--FORM
• In the Italian form the poet develops subject in the octet and then
executes a turn at the beginning of the sestet.
• The sestest releases the tension built up in the octave.
IAMBIC PENTAMETER
• Iambic Pentameter is a pattern of 10 syllables per line
• Iamb= “a foot”
• Consists of 2 syllables (da Dum).
• Pentameter= 5 metered feet
• da Dum/ da Dum/ da Dum/ da Dum/ da Dum
PRACTICING IAMBIC PENTAMETER
2 But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
3 It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
4 Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
EXAMPLE OF SONNET
Read the following sonnet and determine what type of sonnet it is:
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; a
Coral is far more red than her lips' red; b
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; a
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. b
I have seen roses damasked, red and white, c
But no such roses see I in her cheeks; d
And in some perfumes is there more delight c
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. d
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know e
That music hath a far more pleasing sound; f
I grant I never saw a goddess go; e
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. f
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare g
As any she belied with false compare. g
WORKS CITED
The Information in this powerpoint was taken from:
• Folger Shakespeare Library http://www.folger.edu/
• The Sonnet [PPT]
teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/sfarris/Files/.../Poetry/The%20Sonnet.ppt