Sonnet Basics

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Sonnet Basics

• After viewing every page you should
• Be familiar with the structural characteristics
  of an Italian/Petrarchan sonnet
• Be familiar with the structural characteristics
  of an English/Shakespearean sonnet
• Know the characteristics of lyric poetry
• Know the basic elements of Courtly Love
• Have notes applying these elements to Sir Thomas
  Wyatts Whoso list to Hunt and William
  Shakespeares Sonnet 18
• Print out the poem by Petrarch, because its not
  in your Six Centuries of Great Poetry anthology.

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The Sonnet
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A sonnet, from the Italian word sonetto, or
little song, is

• a lyric poem
• consisting of fourteen lines
• written in iambic pentameter
• with a definite rhyme scheme
• and a definite thought structure

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A lyric poem

• Deals with the emotions, feelings, and ideas of a
  single speaker.
• In traditional sonnets, these emotions feelings
  and ideas are often influenced by concepts of
  courtly love
• See later slide

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Iambic pentameter consists of

• five measures, units, or meters, of
• iambs

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An iamb is a metrical foot consisting ofan
unaccented syllable Ufollowed by an accented
syllable /.

• U /
• a gain
• U / U /
• im mor tal ize

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Iambic pentameter
1 2 3
4 5

• U / U / U / U
  / U /
• One day I wrote her name u pon the strand,
• U / U / U /
  U / U /
• But came the waves and wash ed it a way
• U / U / U / U / U /
• A gain I wrote it with a sec ond hand,
• U / U / U / U
  / U /
• But came the tide, and made my pains his prey
• Edmund Spenser, Amoretti, Sonnet 75

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Rhyme scheme

• Petrarchan (Italian) rhyme scheme
• abba, abba, cd, cd, cd
• abba, abba, cde, cde (abba, abba, cddc,
  ee)
• Shakespearean (English, or Elizabethan) rhyme
  scheme
• abab, cdcd, efef, gg

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Sonnet 18

• 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 ow'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.

A B A B C d C D E F E F G G
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Thought structure

• Octave/ sestet
• The octave, the first eight lines, presents a
  situation or idea.
• The sestet (sextet), the last six lines,
  responds, to the situation or idea in the octave.
• Quatrain, quatrain, quatrain, couplet
• Each quatrain, four lines, describes the idea
  or situation which leads to a conclusion or
  response in the couplet, two lines.

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Sonnet 18
The octave describes the ways in which the
summers day is inferior to the beloved.

• 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 ow'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.

The sestet describes the ways in which the
beloved is superior to the summers day.
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Sonnet 73 A Perfect Shakespearean Sonnet

That time of year thou mayst in me beholdWhen
yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hangUpon
those boughs which shake against the cold,Bare
ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds
sang.In me thou see'st the twilight of such
dayAs after sunset fadeth in the westWhich by
and by black night doth take away,Death's second
self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou
see'st the glowing of such fire,That on the
ashes of his youth doth lie,As the death-bed,
whereon it must expire,Consum'd with that which
it was nourish'd by.This thou perceiv'st, which
makes thy love more strong,To love that well,
which thou must leave ere long.
1st Quatrain Year - Fall
2nd Quatrain Day - Twilight
3rd Quatrain Fire - Coals
This is ll.1-12
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Sonnet 73
The speaker is Part of life lived The whole of life
in the fall of his life the spring and summer the year
in the twilight of the day the morning and noon the day
In the glowing coals The ashes created by the flame of youth hour
Q1
Q2
Q3
Year
That time is running out is what the beloved
perceives.
Day
Time is rapidly shortening.
Hour
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The First Sonnets

• The first sonnets were written in Italy in the
  Thirteenth Century.
• The most famous of the Italian sonneteers were
  Dante and Petrarch.
• Poets chronicled stories of unrequited love in
  sonnet sequences sonnets tied together with the
  thread of narrative.
• The Italian sonnet was introduced into English
  poetry by Sir Thomas Wyatt.
• The most important sonnet sequences written in
  English were written by Edmund Spenser (Amoretti
  , published in 1595), and William Shakespeare
  (his untitled sequence of 154 sonnets was
  published in 1609). Thus, by the reign of Queen
  Elizabeth, sonnet production became the vogue,
  and sometimes a cliché, for its aspiring writers.

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Petrarchs Sonnet 190

• i
• Una candida cerva sopra l'erba                    
                    A pure-white doe in an emerald
  glade
• Verde m'apparve, con duo corna d'oro,
                       Appeared to me, with two
  antlers of gold,
• Fra due riviere, all'ombra d'un alloro,
                            At sunrise, in the
  season's bitter cold
• Levando 'l sole, a la stagione ascerba.
                         Between two streams, under
  a laurel's shade
•  
• Era sua vista sí dolce superba,
                                       Her sight
  was so suavely merciless
• Chi'i lasciai per seguirla ogni lavoro
                               That I left work to
  follow her at leisure,
• Com l'avaro, che 'n cercar tesoro
                                   Like the miser
  who looking for his treasure
• Com diletto l'affanno disascerba.
                                   Sweetens with
  that delight his bitterness.
• "Nessun mi tócchi--al bel collo d'intorno
                         Around her lovely neck,
  "Do not touch me"
• Scritto avea di diamanti e di topazi--
                               Was written with
  topaz and diamond stone,
• Libera farmi al mio Cesare parve".
                                   "My Caesar's
  will has been to make me free."
•  
• Et era 'l sol giá vòlto al mezzo giorno
                               Already toward noon
  had climbed the sun,
• Gli occhi miei stanchi di mirar non sazî,
                               My weary eyes were
  not sated to see,
• Quand'io caddi ne l'acqua, et ella sparve.
                           When I fell in the
  stream and she was gone.

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Courtly Love

• Aristocratic
• Depicts a lady of unattainable beauty and status
• The male suitor takes the role of a lowly and
  faithfully loving servant
• A tone of secrecy
• ultimate objective is not crude physical
  satisfaction, but a sublime and sensual intimacy.
  
• The suitors desire / love is often unrequited

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Thomas Wyatts Whoso List to Hunt

• Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,    
• But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
• The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
• I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
• Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
• Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
• Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
• Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
• Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
• As well as I may spend his time in vain.
• And graven with diamonds in letters plain
• There is written, her fair neck round about
• Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
• And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.
• Whoso list whoever wishes.
• hind female deer.
• 2. hélas alas.
• 3. vain travail futile labour.
• 6. deer playing on the word "dear."