THE SONNET Italian and English Sonnet Forms THE

THE SONNET Italian and English Sonnet Forms

THE ITALIAN SONNET • Sonnet form invented in 13 th century Italy • Italian poet Francesco Petrarch • Poems dedicated to an unknown “Laura” • Idealized in Petrarch’s poems. • Seen as beautiful, ideally virtuous and permanently unavailable.

“PETRARCHAN CONVENTIONS”: A Convention: Repeated theme or subject. • Love is excruciatingly painful • The beautiful and virtuous lady is cruel in rejecting the poet’s love • Love is likened to a religion which raises and inspires the lover. • Christian and mythological imagery is mixed together. • The eyes are “windows to the soul” and love begins at first sight. • The poet is subject to extremes of feeling and conflict—the “war within the self”. • The poetry will outlive the poet.

THE ENGLISH SONNET • Sir Thomas Wyatt (1502 -42) and Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey (1517 -47) • Also used religious imagery to: • Convey the purity of lover’s passion • Used Christian and pagan symbols. • The English Sonnet made famous by: • Sir Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare.

THE SONNET FORM A 14 line poem written in Iambic Pentameter and a carefully patterned rhyme scheme. The Italian Sonnet: • 14 lines broken into two sections: • An octave (8 lines) which rhymes abba, and a sestet (6 lines) which rhymes cddcee. • Rhyme scheme: abba cddcee The English Sonnet: • Consists of 14 lines broken up into 3 quatrains (4 lines) which rhymes abab cdcd efef and a couplet (2 lines) which rhymes gg. • Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg

THE SONNET FORM--MEANING • The poet uses the structure of the poem as part of the language. • Can be divided into two sections: • 1 st section: Presents theme, raises an issue or doubt • 2 nd Section: answers the question, resolves the problem or drives home the poem’s point. • The shift or change in the poem is called the turn or volta and helps move forward the emotional action of the poem quickly.

THE ITALIAN SONNET--FORM • In the Italian form the poet develops subject in the octet and then executes a turn at the beginning of the sestet. • The sestest releases the tension built up in the octave.

IAMBIC PENTAMETER • Iambic Pentameter is a pattern of 10 syllables per line • Iamb= “a foot” • Consists of 2 syllables (da Dum). • Pentameter= 5 metered feet • da Dum/ da Dum

PRACTICING IAMBIC PENTAMETER 2 But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? 3 It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. 4 Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

EXAMPLE OF SONNET Read the following sonnet and determine what type of sonnet it is: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; a Coral is far more red than her lips' red; b If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; a If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. b I have seen roses damasked, red and white, c But no such roses see I in her cheeks; d And in some perfumes is there more delight c Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. d I love to hear her speak, yet well I know e That music hath a far more pleasing sound; f I grant I never saw a goddess go; e My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. f And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare g As any she belied with false compare. g

WORKS CITED The Information in this powerpoint was taken from: • Folger Shakespeare Library http: //www. folger. edu/ • The Sonnet [PPT] teachers. sduhsd. k 12. ca. us/sfarris/Files/. . . /Poetry/The%20 Sonnet. ppt