Download The Renaissance and the Sonnet

The Renaissance
Period
1485-1660
The term renaissance is a French word meaning
“rebirth.” It refers particularly to a renewed interest
in classical learning – the writings of ancient Greece
and Rome. The Renaissance Period is considered to
be a cultural movement.
The Renaissance era in Europe
and in England was marked by a
change in the way people thought
about themselves and the world.
No longer content with the fixed
religious beliefs of the Middle
Ages, people became more
interested in expanding their own
knowledge.
The War of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars
between supporters of the rival houses of Lancaster and
York, for the throne of England. They are generally accepted
to have been fought in several spasmodic episodes between
1455 and 1485 (although there was related fighting both
before and after this period). The war ended with the victory
for the Earl of Richmond, Henry Tudor, who founded the
House of Tudor, which subsequently ruled England and
Wales for 117 years.
Henry Tudor, King Henry VII
The Tudor Rose
Technically the Renaissance
era in England begins when
a Tudor nobleman (Henry
Tudor) is crowned King
Henry VII. However, the
Renaissance occurred
gradually and this cultural
movement occurred across
Europe, not just in England.
King Henry VII is the father of King
Henry VIII, famous for beheading
his many wives and breaking with
the Catholic Church to create the
Church of England.
Does this man look
full of himself or
what?
Portraits of
King Henry
VIII
The Renaissance, a time of renewal of the human spirit, a
renewal of curiosity and creativity, started in Italy. Over
several centuries Italy had acquired considerable wealth ($),
which it had accumulated from banking and trade with the
East. Many famous inventors, painters, and writers
flourished during this time period. People like:
Michelangelo, Christopher Columbus, Galileo, and Da Vinci.
The Louvre – Museum in Paris
During the Renaissance educated
people began to embrace an
intellectual movement known as
humanism. Humanists looked not
only to the Bible but also to the
Latin and Greek classics for wisdom
and knowledge. Humanists
combined classical ideology with
traditional Christian thought in
order to teach people how to live
and rule. Humanism is a movement
that came from what we today
would call humanities, which is the
study of philosophy, history,
languages and the arts.
Michelangelo's David is a
masterpiece of Renaissance
sculpture.
An invention that transformed
this historical time period is the
printing press. Early books were
written by hand and preserved
by monks and Byzantine and
Islamic scholars. However, the
invention of the printing press in
the early 15th century (early
1400’s) dramatically changed the
way people received information.
No longer were the elite or nobles
the only ones to have access to
books, newspapers, journals, etc.
With the power to have more
books comes more reading, thus
more enlightenment.
Johannes Gutenburg is credited with inventing
the first printing press in Germany around 1400.
By 1476 William Caxton had his own printing
press up and running in Westminster, England.
The new mind frame of the Renaissance was to attain
virtue, not success or money or fame. This new ideal
is founded on the belief that virtue is the best possible
human possession and the only source of true
happiness.
Poetry of the Renaissance/Elizabethan Age
Major themes – love and beauty
Physical beauty – outward
sign of the spirit striving
for perfection (humanist
theory).
Poet writes to a lady who is
inflexible. Man seeks her love,
but hopelessly. Her moods create
the weather. Lady is usually not
real (a stereotype).
“Fair” = a sign of beauty
Carpe Diem and Pastoral Poetry
Carpe Diem is a Latin phrase
which means “seize the day.”
Poets in the Renaissance were
pushing for enlightenment
and the concept of fleeting
time/life being short meant
more authors were
generating poems with these
themes: Live for today. Eat,
drink, and be merry, for
tomorrow we die.
Pastoral Poetry focuses
on the idealized
countryside and the
simple life. With cities
on the rise, there was a
desire to get back to the
simplistic things in life.
Pastoral poetry
idealizes a simple life.
THE SONNET
TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS
Your Eyes
For my dearest Jessie Zeigler
Your eyes amist, delicious twists of gray,
They watch your silken hair splay round my hand.
Your smile awry; I laugh—I cry to stay
Yet take my leave for lack of holy bands.
Ah me, so waiting in my solitude.
I bear; I grin; I sweat; I die in wait.
My lady sweet, know that you’re here pursued.
Yet even while the star-crossed stars dictate,
Go clothe yourself with moon and stars of sky.
Your bouquet is the sun upon its rise.
So come to me that day when day comes nigh;
I’ll say, “My Lovely,” to those starlit eyes.
Those twists of gray alight in passion’s love,
They watch at last our names writ out above.
BACKGROUND
 The sonnet originated in Sicily in the 13th Century with
Giacomo da Lentino (1188-1240), a lawyer who wrote his
poems in the Sicilian dialect of Italian
 Some authorities credit another Italian, Guittone d'Arezzo
(1230-1294), with originating the sonnet.
 The English word "sonnet" comes from the Italian word
"sonetto," meaning "little song." Some early sonnets were
set to music, with accompaniment provided by a lute.
 The Italian poet Petrarch (1304-1374), a Roman Catholic
priest, popularized the sonnet more than two centuries
before Shakespeare was born. Other popular Italian
sonneteers were Dante Alighieri, who is famous for
writing The Inferno.

The sonnet form was introduced in England by
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) and Henry
Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547).
In Italy, England, and elsewhere between the 13th
and early 16th Centuries, the most common theme
of sonnets was love. Sonnets in later times also
focused on religion, politics, and other concerns of
the reading public.
TYPES
SONNET
Petrarchan
Shakespearean
What are the lines about?
Do they tell a story?
Do they speak about feelings?
PETRARCHAN
How do I love thee? Let me count
the ways.
I love thee to the depth and
breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling
out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal
Grace.
LYRIC
SHAKESPEAREAN
When in disgrace with
fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast
state,
And trouble deaf heaven with
my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and
curse my fate,
How many lines do these sonnets
have?
PETRARCHAN
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?“
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."
LYRIC 14 lines
SHAKESPEAREAN
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
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:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines
And often is his gold complexion dimmed
And every fair from fair sometime declines
By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou 1ow'st
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee
How many syllables are there per line?
Notice the stress pattern of the lines
PETRARCHAN
How do I love thee? Let me count
the ways.
I love thee to the depth and
breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling
out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal
Grace.
SHAKESPEAREAN
When in disgrace with
fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast
state,
And trouble deaf heaven with
my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and
curse my fate,
LYRIC 14 lines10 syllables
How many syllables are there per line?
What syllables have stress?
U =unstressed; / =stressed
PETRARCHAN
U
/
U
/
U
/
U
SHAKESPEAREAN
/
U
How do I love thee? Let me
/
/
U
/
U
U
/
U
U
/
U
/
fortune and men's eyes
U
/
U
I love thee to the depth and
/
/
When in disgrace with
/
count the ways.
U
U
U / U
/
U
I all alone beweep my
/
breadth and height
/
/
U state,
/
outcast
LYRIC 14 lines10 syllables
U
CHARACTERISTICS
a lyric poem
consisting of fourteen lines
written in iambic pentameter
An iamb is a metrical foot consisting of
an unaccented syllable U followed by
an accented syllable / .
Pentameter means there are 5 iambs in the line
2 syllables x 5=10 syllables
“The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R98BjmPI_5
M
PETRARCHAN
Sonnet XLII
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
•COUNT THE NUMBER OF LINES
•IDENTIFY THE RHYME SCHEME
A
B
B
A
A
B
B
A
I love with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death
•COUNT THE NUMBER OF LINES
•IDENTIFY THE RHYME SCHEME
•HOW ARE THE LINES DIVIDED?
C
D
C
D
C
D
RHYME scheme
• Petrarchan (Italian) rhyme
scheme:
•
abba, abba, cd, cd, cd
•
abba, abba, cde, cde
Thought structure
• Octave/ sestet
•
The octave, eight lines,
presents a situation or idea.
•
The sestet (sextet), six
lines, responds, to the situation or
idea in the octave.
English Sonnets
The rhyme scheme for the English
sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg, with three
quatrains (a set of four lines) and a final
couplet (two lines). Notice that there are
more rhymes in the English sonnet.
Because so many Italian words end in
vowels, it is easier to find four words that
rhyme in that language than it is in
English.
How to write a sonnet
• Take a sheet of paper and write the rhyme
scheme you wish to use down the left hand side.
• It is good to use a pencil or word processor so
that erasing is easily done.
• Think of a subject, word, or object and try
writing a first line that has to do with it.
• The instructions of your project don’t force you
to use iambic pentameter, but if you want to use
it, try to keep the de-dump-de-dump rhythm in
your head.
Writing Sonnets continued
• It helps to write sonnets with the natural
divisions in mind. For Shakespearean sonnets,
which I consider easier, this would be groups
of four lines – abab. Try to get a whole
thought into those four and then try to write
the connecting four – cdcd. Repeat this for
efef. The ending couplet I like to think of as
the closer, summing up the poem.
Option B – The Essay
• Some of you will choose to write an analysis
of “The Shepherd” and “The Nymph’s Reply.”
• If you choose this option, there are a few
different ways to approach the essay.
• Firstly, you could analyze diction. What is the
author’s (Christopher Marlow’s or Sir Walter
Raleigh’s) intent for using the words they
used. On a different level, what was the
speakers of the poems’ intent?
Option B continued
• Since the poems are speeches between two
people to each other, strategies like imagery,
pictures or other sensations painted with words,
are related to diction.
• Secondly, you may wish to analyze the
contrasting moods (feelings created in the
readers) and themes of the poems. In fact,
contrasting diction and imagery might be useful
too.
• Lastly, keep in mind what you think are the
underlying messages of these poems – what to
they really mean beneath it all.