Sonnets

• 14 line lyric• Single stanza• Iambic pentameter line• Intricate rhyme scheme• Often written in narrative sequences

—sonnet sequence• Often concerned with love and desire• Diversity of sonnet models

Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet

• Named for Petrarch• 2 main units

– Octave—eight line section—rhyming abbaabba

– Sestet—six line section—rhyming cdecde or variation (e.g. cdccdc)

• Octave presents problem or poses scenario that is answered or resolved in sestet

• Becomes imitated in English by Milton, Wordsworth, and Rossetti

English Sonnet

• Also known as Shakespearean sonnet• Three quatrains (4 line poetic

section) with a final couplet– abab cdcd efef gg

• Presents three views of perspectives on a problem or scenario with epigrammatic conclusion in final couplet

• Flourishes in Renaissance—time of cultural renewal and revival in which classical texts are rediscovered and re-valued

Spenserian Sonnet

• Minor variation of English sonnet• Still thee quatrains and final couplet• Quatrains linked by continuing rhyme

– abab bcbc cdcd ee

Sonnet

• Great diversity of form and subject matter

• Initially about love and courtship• Becomes used to address religious,

political, and personal issues• Can be presented as occasional

poem—poems that memorialize or celebrate specific day or occasion

• Can be presented in sequence

Poetic features of sonnet

• Conceits—yoking together of disparate concepts or images

• Metaphor—expression in which one kind of concept or activity is compared or applied to notably distinct kind of concept or activity (e.g. he’s a fox)

• Metonymy—literal term for one concept or action is used to denote closely related concept or action (e.g. crown)

Poetic features of sonnet

• Synecdoche—a part of concept or thing is used to denote the whole of concept or thing (40 head [of cattle])

• Petrarchan conceit—conceits (usually about women, love, and beauty)used in love poems that were original when Petrarch used them but became hackneyed and parodied by later English writers

Things we see in the sonnet

• Organic form—internal form, structure, balance, and organization

• Stock characters—recognizably conventional figures

• Stock responses—recognizably conventional responses

• Stock situations—recognizably conventional settings

Things we see in the sonnet

• Antitype—New Testament correlatives to Old Testament Types

• Blazon—Poetic technique in which individual (often woman) is imagined or portrayed by partitioning the body into specified metaphors; mock-heraldic descripton

• Bombast—pretentious, verbose, and inflated diction that is notably inappropriate to the matter it signifies

More poetic genres

• Dramatic Monologue—lyric poem in which speaker other than poet addresses a distinct individual in an identifiable situation to expose speaker’s character

• Dramatic Lyric—similar to dramatic monologue; lyric monologue in which focus is on speaker’s own arguments rather than revealing speakers character

More poetic genres

• Idyll—narrative verse that relies upon pastoral techniques

• Prose poem—19th-century development; compact and clearly rhythmic verse written as perpetual sequence of sentences without line breaks

Francis Petrarch (1304-1374)

• Great Italian poet• Credited with creating

sonnet• Consciously modern poet• Seeks to break from

medieval learning and customs

• Writes on cusp of modernity

• Writes of desire for elusive woman dubbed Laura in Rime Sparse

Francis Petrarch (1304-1374)

• Humanistic training• Modern sense of

alienation in world• Documents diverse

effects of his powerful love for Laura

• Struggles to reconcile earthly and spiritual love

Francis Petrarch (1304-1374)

• Sonnets have confessional tone

• Adopts poetic conventions of Apollo pursuing Daphne

• Internal male poet revealed through physical descriptions of external female

• Petrarchan style becomes imitated and parodied by English sonneteers

Petrarch, “Sonnet” 1

• Addresses reader and prospective reader

• Poet seeking pity not pardon• Ashamed to have received so much

publicity• Result of shame

Petrarch, Sonnet #3

• “Taken” by Laura on anniversary of Christ’s death

• Didn’t think he needed to protect himself from love on such a day

• Love finds him disarmed

Petrarch, Sonnet 61

• Blesses time and place when 1st saw Laura

• Blesses pain and wounds of love• Blesses despair of lovel• Blesses his own fame derived from

sonnets

Petrarch, Sonnet 90

• Laura used to have wild golden hair and bright eyes

• Laura used to walk as angel—divine on earth

• Would of love still bleeds even if such may no longer be true

Petrarch, Sonnet 333

• To go to Laura’s grave• Poet sick of living• Only business is to praise Laura• Asks Laura may be by his side as he

dies

Sir Philip Sidney

• Great English sonneteer

• Modifies sonnet• Writes lengthy

sonnet sequence—Astrophil and Stella

• Also known for prose romances and literary criticism

Sidney, Sonnet 1

• English sonnet• Opening sonnet of Astrophil and

Stella• Poet to relate his pain to give

beloved pleasure• Hoping she’ll read them• His words want invention• Struggling to write• Muse tells him to look to his heart to

write

Sidney, Sonnet 2

• Variation of English sonnet rhyme scheme

• Wounded by love• Forced to agree to love’s decrees• Tries to convince himself he’s happy

as he documents his misery

Sidney, sonnet 7

• English sonnet• Stella’s eyes as nature’s chief works• Questions why her eyes so bright• Offers different explanations

Sidney, sonnet 39

• English sonnet• Calls on sleep• Sleep as balm• Sleep to calm his internal civil wars• If he doesn’t sleep—Stella’s image to

be livelier

Sidney, Sonnet 72

• Variation on rhyme scheme of English sonnet

• Addresses desire as old companion• Must depart beloved—virtue?• Attempts to banish desire—how?

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

• English sonnet• Beloved more lovely than

a summer’s day• Beloved does not fade• Endurance of poetry

Shakespeare, Sonnet 73

• English sonnet• Autumnal tone—autumnal

time of life• Glow of fire on ashes of youth• Fire consumed by source of

nourishment

Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

• English sonnet• Attempt to define

love/absence of love• Does not alter• Does not bend• Ever-fixed mark• Not time’s fool• Lasts till edge of doom• Witty epigrammatic

closing couplet

Shakespeare, Sonnet 130

• Anti-blazon• Parodies Petrarchan

conceits • Coral more red than

beloved’s lips• Snow far more white than

beloved’s breasts• Wire as hair• Does the poet still uphold

his lady?

Edmund Spenser, Sonnet 1

• Taken from Amoretti• Spenserian sonnet

– Slight variation on English sonnet

– Continues one rhyme from each couplet

• Love/captivity• Writes with tears• Devoted poet—poems

aimed to please beloved alone

Spenser, Sonnet 54

• Spenserian sonnet• Poet’s love idly sits• Can make mirth or tragedy• Beloved mocks his comedy

and laughs at his tragedy• Nothing can move this

woman

Spenser, Sonnet 64

• Spenserian sonnet• Trying to kiss beloved• Blazon of woman• Beloved’s smell better

than smell of all these flowers

Christopher Marlowe, “The Passionate Shepherd to His

Love”• Not a sonnet• Contemporary of Shakespeare,

Sidney, and Spenser• Invitation to love poem—Carpe diem

tropes• Pastoral imagery• Poet will adorn beloved with nature• Dress “organically”• Carpe diem trope dependent on

pleasing beloved

John Milton, “How Soon Hath Time”

• Italian sonnet• New sonnet subject matter• No longer concerned with

love, desire, and courtship• Far more personal sonnets• Religious implications• Time stealing youth• Perhaps he can deceive• Time pays evenly

Milton, “When I consider How My Light is Spent”

• Italian sonnet• Life half over• Going blind• Questions why he should

continue• How can he serve God?• Told he need not see to serve

God• God happy when we bear our

mild yoke—or when we simply stand and wait

William Wordsworth, “Composed upon Westminster

Bridge”• Italian sonnet• Natural splendor surrounds

him• City wears beauty of nature

like garment• Yet city still asleep—might

heart of human energy and potential latent

Wordsworth, “London, 1802”

• Italian sonnet• Employs trope of

occasional poem• England needs Milton

now• England in state of

turmoil• Claims English are

selfish men• Great admiration for

energy and vision of Milton

Wordsworth, “The world is too much with us”

• Italian sonnet• Have become too worldly• Lost touch with nature• Out of tune• No longer moved by nature• Turns to pagan alternatives

for vivacious imagery of sestet

John Keats, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”

• Commemorates his reading of George Chapman’s English translation of Homer

• He’s traveled plenty• He’s read plenty• He’s heard of Homer• Everything changes when

he reads Chapman’s translation

• Images of astrology, conquest, exploration to describe experience of opening Chapman’s translation

Reading poetry

• Be attuned to unusual word order – Example from Paradise LostHim the Almighty PowerHurled headlong, flaming from the ethereal sky With hideous ruin and combustion downTo the bottomless perdition, there to dwellIn adamantine chains and penal fire,Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.

(lines 44-49)

Reading Poetry

– Example from Paradise Lost do s av John asked

whom to the prom

Mary, the girl whom John asked to the prom, is going a member of Key Club and Beta Club. subject verb do

the Almighty Power [God] / Hurled him [Satan] down

Try asking the 6 Ws

– Who? (Subject) The Almighty Power [God]

– Did What? (verb) What did God do? Hurled

– To whom? Him [Satan}, – Where? Down to the bottomless

perdition– Why? [Satan did] defy the Omnipotent

[God] to arms– When? (does not say)

Ask-

– Under what condition? in adamantine [hard, inflexible] chains

and penal [punishing] fire

– How?

Headlong [pitched him headfirst], flaming from the ethereal sky with hideous ruin and combustion

Epigrams by Ben Franklin

• There never was a good war nor a bad peace.

• Time is money.• Love your neighbor, but don’t

pull down your hedges.• God helps them that help

themselves.• Fish and visitors smell after

three days.• Dost thou love life? Then do not

squander time, for that is the stuff life’s made of.

Epigram by Ben Franklin

The Body of B. Franklin,

Printer;Like the Cover of an old Book,

Its Contents torn out,And stript of its Lettering and Gilding,

Lies here, Food for Worms.But the work shall not be wholly lost:

,

A Printer’s Epitaph (1728) cont.

For it will as he believ’d appear once more,

In a new and more perfect Edition Corrected and amended

By the Author.He was born Jan. 6, 1706.

Died 17—