Transcript Sonnets - Wildcat Freshmen English

Sonnets
”A sonnet by any other name
would sound as sweet…”
Pretest
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What is “iambic
pentameter?”
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A.) A single file line of five
people, each person with
two feet.
B.) A ten syllable line,
consisting of five iambic
feet.
What is a “sonnet?”
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A.) a poem consisting 10
lines.
B.) a poem consisting of
14 lines
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What are the main types of
sonnets?
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A.) English and Italian
B.) Shakespearean and
Petrarchan
C.) Both A and B.
What is a poetic “foot?”
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A.) the most important
line in the poem
B.) The last line in a poem
C.) A group of two
syllables.
Pretest continued
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Identify the following as true or false.
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An Octave is a sentence with eight syllables.
A Quatrain is a stanza of four lines.
The sestet is found at the end of the sonnet.
“Volta” is another name for the title.
A couplet is a group of three lines.
Add to your notes:
Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic
pentameter
 Iambic Pentameter: metrical pattern in
poetry in which each line consists of five
iambs
 Iamb: a metrical foot of poetry consisting
of an unstressed syllable (u) followed by a
stressed syllable (/)
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Wanna sound like Shakespeare?
Art = are
Shall = should
Thou/thee = you
Nor = does not
‘est/’ed/’st = past tense of verb; usually –ed
Common Sonnet Themes:
Seasons of life =spring-birth/summerprime of life/fall-getting older/winter-death
Fair-light skin; blonde; above standard
or perfection
Time is capitalized---personification-it’s
given a name
What is a Sonnet?
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A very structured type of poetry in which the
author attempts to show two related but
differing things to the reader in order to
communicate something about them.
Developed in Italy, probably in the
thirteenth century.
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Sonnets (cont.)
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Almost always consists of fourteen lines and
follows one of several set rhyme schemes:
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English (Shakespearean)
Italian (Petrarchan)
Spenserian
Sonnet Vocabulary
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Quatrain:
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A stanza of four lines.
Octave:
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An eight line stanza. Used primarily to denote the
first eight-line division of the Italian Sonnet as
separate from the last six-line division, the sestet.
Vocab. (cont.)
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Sestet:
 The second six-line division of an Italian Sonnet.
Following the eight-line division (octave), the sestet
usually makes specific a general statement that has
been presented in the octave or indicates the
personal emotion of the author in a situation that
the octave has developed.
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Volta:
 The turn in thought– from question to answer,
problem to solution– that occurs at the beginning of
the sestet (line 9) in the Italian sonnet. Sometimes
occurs in the English sonnet between the twelfth
and thirteenth lines. Marked by “but,” “yet,” or
“and yet.”
Italian Sonnets (Petrarchan)
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Distinguished by its
division into the
octave and sestet:
 The octave rhyming
abbaabba
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The sestet rhyming
cdecde, cdcdcd or
cdedce
More on Italian Sonnets…
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The octave typically:
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Presents a narrative
States a preposition
Or raises a question
The sestet:
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drives home the narrative
by making an abstract
comment
applies the preposition
or solves the problem.
English Sonnets (Shakespearean)
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Four divisions are used:
 Three quatrains
 Each with a rhyme scheme of its own, usually
rhyming alternating lines.
 And a rhymed concluding couplet.
The typical rhyme scheme is
 Abab cdcd efef gg
English (cont.)
each quatrain develops a specific idea, but one
closely related to the ideas in the other quatrains.
 Not only is the English sonnet the easiest in
terms of its rhyme scheme, calling for only pairs
of rhyming words rather than groups of 4, but it
is the most flexible in terms of the placement of
the volta. Shakespeare often places the "turn," as
in the Italian, at L9
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Spenserian
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The Spenserian sonnet, invented by Edmund
Spenser, complicates the Shakespearean form,
linking rhymes among the quatrains:
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Abab bcbc cdcd ee
there does not appear to be a requirement that the
initial octave sets up a problem that the closing sestet
"answers", as is the case with a Petrarchan sonnet.
The Spenserian Sonnet is very rare among
modern poets.
Identify the Type of Sonnet
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The spring returns, the spring wind softly blowing
Sprinkles the grass with gleam and glitter of showers,
Powdering pearl and diamond, dripping with flowers,
Dropping wet flowers, dancing the winters going;
The swallow twitters, the groves of midnight are glowing
With nightingale music and madness; the sweet fierce powers
Of love flame up through the earth; the seed-soul towers
And trembles; nature is filled to overflowing…
The spring returns, but there is no returning
Of spring for me. O heart with anguish burning!
She that unlocked all April in a breath
Returns not…And these meadows, blossoms, birds
These lovely gentle girls—words, empty words
As bitter as the black estates of death!
Identify the Type of Sonnet
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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 dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
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:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Identify the Type of Sonnet
"Sonnet LIV”
Of this World's theatre in which we stay,
My love like the Spectator idly sits,
Beholding me, that all the pageants play,
Disguising diversely my troubled wits.
Sometimes I joy when glad occasion fits,
And mask in mirth like to a Comedy;
Soon after when my joy to sorrow flits,
I wail and make my woes a Tragedy.
Yet she, beholding me with constant eye,
Delights not in my mirth nor rues my smart;
But when I laugh, she mocks: and when I cry
She laughs and hardens evermore her heart.
What then can move her? If nor mirth nor moan,
She is no woman, but a senseless stone.