Sonnets introduction

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

WHAT ARE THE FIVE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF A SONNET?

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Was that a sonnet?

1. Yes
2. No

Lyke as a ship that through the Ocean wyde
    
by conduct of some star doth make her way,
    
whenas a storme hath dimd her trusty guyde,
    
out of her course doth wander far astray:


So I whose star, that wont with her bright ray
    
me to direct, with cloudes is overcast,
    
doe wander now in darknesse and dismay,
    
through hidden perils round about me plast.


Yet hope I well, that when this storme is past
  
 my Helice the lodestar of my lyfe
    
will shine again, and looke on me at last,
    
with lovely light to cleare my cloudy grief.


Till then I wander careful comfortlesse,
    
in secret sorow and sad pensivenesse.

And that one?

1. Yes
2. No

VOLTA: 

Break of thought: the feeling, the meaning of the poem changes. 

For instance: 

Lines 1 to 12: My beloved is nothing special

BUT

Line 13 and 14 (Volta): She is still the loveliest woman in the world 

Petrarchan / Italian: 

First two quatrains: 
ABBA
ABBA

Sestet:
CD CD CD

OR
CD DC DC

OR
CDE CDE

OR
CDE CED

OR
CDC EDC                                                              VOLTA in line 9 

SPENSERIAN

Rhyme scheme:

ABAB
BCBC
CDCD
EE

Volta not as distinct, usually in line 9 

SHAKESPEAREAN:

Rhyme scheme:

ABAB
CDCD
EFEF
GG

Volta 
USUALLY in line 13, but can also be in line 9, or ….. 

Rhythm 

Written in iambic pentameter: 

Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, a poetic meter with 10 beats per line made up of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables.

Say what? 

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 day

Now let's look at our first sonnet and its background.