What's a sonnet?

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• What's a sonnet?
• A 14-line lyric poem, usually in iambic
  pentameter in
• English, with several different rhyme
  schemes
• Petrarchan abba abba cde cde (octave sestet)
• (a) Wyatt adds a couplet abba abba cddc ee
• (b) Donne abba abba cdcd ee
• Shakespearean (Surrey, Drayton) abab cdcd efef
  gg
• (three quatrains couplet)
• Sidney abab abab cdcd ee
• Spenser (most difficult) abab bcbc cdcd ee

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OK, whats iambic pentameter? A ten-syllable
(or five foot) line whose rhythm alternates
unstressed and stressed syllables (or iambs)
? / ? / ? / ?
/ ? / The kind of sonnet
form that Shakespeare wrote Note that
Shakespeare is not a natural iamb (neither is
iamb), but a trochee (stressed-unstressed)
that, once inserted into the line, reads
iambically. Note also that not every line of
every sonnet is perfectly iambicthat would
result in an annoying singsong quality. An
overall iambic rhythm collides with the natural
rhythm of speech to produce the individual
sonnets particular measure.
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OK, whats a foot? iambic foot / iamb
unstressed stressed ? unite, repeat,
insist, delight trochaic foot / trochee stressed
unstressed ? unit, reaper, instant,
mother anapestic foot / anapest two unstressed
stressed ?? introduce, disarranged,
Brigadoon dactylic foot / dactyl stressed two
unstressed ?? Washington, happiness,
syllable spondaic foot / spondee stressed
stressed heartbreak, headline, childhood
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OK, whats iambic pentameter? A ten-syllable
(or five foot) line whose rhythm alternates
unstressed and stressed syllables (or iambs)
? / ? / ? / ?
/ ? / The kind of sonnet
form that Shakespeare wrote Note that
Shakespeare is not a natural iamb (neither is
iamb), but a trochee (stressed-unstressed)
that, once inserted into the line, reads
iambically. Note also that not every line of
every sonnet is perfectly iambicthat would
result in an annoying singsong quality. An
overall iambic rhythm collides with the natural
rhythm of speech to produce the individual
sonnets particular measure.
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The Petrarchan Francis Petrarch, 1304-1374
sonnet sequence is a series of sonnets (with
songs interspersed) exploring the contrary states
of feeling a lover experiences as he desires and
idolizes an unattainable lady some conventional
themes concern the lady's great beauty blazon or
inventory conceit, her power over him, her
cruelty to him, his sleeplessness, the fire of
his love and the ice of her chastity, the pain of
absence, the renunciation of love, the eternity
and originality of his poems. English sonneteers
include 1. Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) who
brought the form to England he and Henry Howard,
Earl of Surrey (1517-47) represent the first
generation afterwards come (all born after the
death of these two) 2. Edmund Spenser
(Amoretti) George Gascoigne Sir Philip Sidney
(Astrophil and Stella) Samuel Daniel
(Delia) Shakespeare Michael Drayton (Idea)
John Donne (Holy Sonnets) Sir John Davies
(Gulling Sonnets) Fulke Greville (Caelica) Lady
Mary Wroth (Pamphilia to Amphilanthus)
"all-loving" to "lover of two"
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Some sonnet conventions 1. The blazon, or
inventory of beauties. Embraced by Spenser,
Amoretti 15 parodied by Shakespeare,
130. 2. the power of poetry Spenser 75 (name on
the strand), Shakespeare 18 (summer's day), 19,
55 3. the power of the beloved Sidney 41
(success in arms), 74 (success in verse due to
kiss) Shakespeare 29 (when in disgrace) 4.
naturalness, artlessness of verse Sidney 1 (note
hexameters), 74 5. reason versus passion, divine
versus earthly Sidney 5, 52, 71 Spenser 68,
79 6. the feigned renunciation of love Drayton
61
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Blazon and Anti-blazon

• YE tradefull Merchants that with weary toyle, 
  do seeke most precious things to make your
  gain  and both the Indias of their treasures
  spoile,  what needeth you to seeke so farre in
  vaine?For lo my love doth in her selfe
  containe  all this worlds riches that may farre
  be found  if Saphyres, lo her eyes be Saphyres
  plaine,  if Rubies, lo hir lips be Rubies
  foundIf Pearles, hir teeth be pearles both pure
  and round  if Yvorie, her forhead yvory
  weene  if Gold, her locks are finest gold on
  ground  if silver, her faire hands are silver
  sheene,But that which fairest is, but few
  behold,  her mind adornd with vertues manifold.
• Spenser, Amoretti 15
• MY mistress' eyes are nothing like the sunCoral
  is far more red, than her lips redIf snow be
  white, why then her breasts are dunIf hairs be
  wires, black wires grow on her head.I have seen
  roses damasked, red and white,But no such roses
  see I in her cheeksAnd in some perfumes is
  there more delightThan in the breath that from
  my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet
  well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing
  soundI grant I never saw a goddess go, My
  mistress, when she walks, treads on the
  groundAnd yet by heaven, I think my love as
  rare,As any she belied with false compare.
• Shakespeare, Sonnet 130

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Some sonnet conventions 1. The blazon, or
inventory of beauties. Embraced by Spenser,
Amoretti 15 parodied by Shakespeare,
130. 2. the power of poetry Spenser 75 (name on
the strand), Shakespeare 18 (summer's day), 19,
55 3. the power of the beloved Sidney 41
(success in arms), 74 (success in verse due to
kiss) Shakespeare 29 (when in disgrace) 4.
naturalness, artlessness of verse Sidney 1 (note
hexameters), 74 5. reason versus passion, divine
versus earthly Sidney 5, 52, 71 Spenser 68,
79 6. the feigned renunciation of love Drayton
61
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the conceit The ingenious, fanciful
supposition at the core of a poem that helps to
organize it. Often an elaborate figurative
device, using metaphor, oxymoron, hyperbole,
etc. often intellectual. (conceit, c. 1600
idea, thought) 1. Wyatt, "Whoso List"
hunting 2. Surrey, "Love that doth reign" war
(cp. Wyatt, "The Long Love", both translations
of Petrarch, Rime 190) 3. Spenser 54 dramatic
metaphor 4. Shakespeare 135, Sidney 37 puns on
names (Will, Rich) 5. Donne, Holy Sonnet 14
paradoxes
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ENGLISH 2310 FALL 2009 METER QUIZ Compose
two meaningful, original, pentameter iambic
unrhymed lines.
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Sonnets the problem of address (1) AM I thus
conquered? have I lost the powers,That to
withstand, which joyes to ruine me?Must I be
still, while it my strength devoures,And captive
leads me prisoner bound, unfree?Love first shall
leave mens fantsies to them free, Desire shall
quench Loves flames, Spring, hate sweet
showersLove shall loose all his Darts, have
sight, and seeHis shame, and wishings hinder
happy hours.Why should we not Loves purblind
charms resist? Must we be servile, doing what he
list?No, seek some host to harbor thee I
flyThy babish tricks, and freedom do
professBut O my hurt makes my lost heart
confessI love, and must So farewell liberty.
Lady Mary Wroth, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus 16
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Sonnets the problem of address (2) Devouring
Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,And make the
earth devour her own sweet broodPluck the keen
teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,And burn the
long-lived phoenix in her bloodMake glad and
sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,And do whate'er
thou wilt, swift-footed TimeTo the wide world
and all her fading sweetsBut I forbid thee one
most heinous crime,O carve not with thy hours my
love's fair brow,Nor draw no lines there with
thine antique pen,Him in thy course untainted do
allow,For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet do thy worst, old Time despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live
young. Shakespeare, sonnet 19
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Sonnets the problem of address (3) A woman's
face with Nature's own hand painted,Hast thou,
the master mistress of my passionA woman's
gentle heart but not acquaintedWith shifting
change as is false women's fashionAn eye more
bright than theirs, less false in
rolling,Gilding the object whereupon it
gazethA man in hue all hues in his
controlling,Which steals men's eyes and women's
souls amazeth.And for a woman wert thou first
created,Till Nature as she wrought thee fell
a-doting,And by addition me of thee defeated,By
adding one thing to my purpose nothing. But
since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their
treasure. Shakespeare, sonnet 20
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Sonnets the problem of address (4) Look in thy
glass and tell the face thou viewest,Now is the
time that face should form another,Whose fresh
repair if now thou not renewest,Thou dost
beguile the world, unbless some mother.For where
is she so fair whose uneared wombDisdains the
tillage of thy husbandry?Or who is he so fond
will be the tomb,Of his self-love, to stop
posterity?Thou art thy mother's glass, and she
in theeCalls back the lovely April of her
primeSo thou through windows of thine age shalt
see,Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.
But if thou live remembred not to be, Die
single, and thine image dies with thee.
Shakespeare, sonnet 3
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Sonnets the problem of address (5) When I do
count the clock that tells the time,And see the
brave day sunk in hideous night,When I behold
the violet past prime,And sable curls all
silvered o'er with whiteWhen lofty trees I see
barren of leaves,Which erst from heat did canopy
the herdAnd summer's green all girded up in
sheavesBorne on the bier with white and bristly
beardThen of thy beauty do I question makeThat
thou among the wastes of time must go,Since
sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,And
die as fast as they see others grow,And nothing
'gainst Time's scythe can make defenceSave breed
to brave him, when he takes thee hence.
Shakespeare, sonnet 12
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Sonnets the problem of address (6) When in the
chronicle of wasted timeI see descriptions of
the fairest wights,And beauty making beautiful
old rhymeIn praise of ladies dead, and lovely
knights,Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty's
best,Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of
brow,I see their antique pen would have
expressedEven such a beauty as you master
now.So all their praises are but propheciesOf
this our time, all you prefiguring,And for they
looked but with divining eyes,They had not skill
enough your worth to sing For we which now
behold these present days, Have eyes to
wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
Shakeapeare, sonnet 106
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Sonnets the problem of address (6) O thou, my
lovely boy, who in thy power,Dost hold Time's
fickle glass, his sickle, hourWho hast by
waning grown and therein show'st,Thy lovers
withering, as thy sweet self grow'st.If Nature
(sovereign mistress over wrack)As thou goest
onwards still will pluck thee back,She keeps
thee to this purpose, that her skillMay time
disgrace and wretched minutes kill.Yet fear her,
O thou minion of her pleasure,She may detain,
but not still keep, her treasure!Her audit
(though delayed) answered must be,And her
quietus is to render thee. Shakespeare, sonnet
126
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Sonnets the problem of address (7) Batter my
heart, three-personed God for youAs yet but
knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mendThat I
may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bendYour
force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.I,
like an usurped town, to another due,Labor to
admit you, but O, to no endReason, your viceroy
in me, me should defend,But is captived, and
proves weak or untrue.Yet dearly I love you, and
would be loved fain,But am betrothed unto your
enemyDivorce me, untie or break that knot
again,Take me to you, imprison me, for I,Except
you enthrall me, never shall be free,Nor ever
chaste, except you ravish me. Donne, Holy
Sonnet 14
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John Donne (1572-1631)
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Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)