Renaissance lesson 3: sonnets + Edmund Spenser + Sonnet 75

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Sonnets

Goal: to become a SONNET master

 

What do you know about sonnets?

03:05

What we do know:

1. That Shakespeare is the speaker of the sonnets.
2. That they're probably quite personal.
3. That they're written in the 14th century.

03:05

How many sonnets did Shakespeare write?

05:04

Answer in your own words: Why did Shakespeare choose Iambic Pentameter?

03:37

Explain in your own words:
what is Iambic Pentametre?

00:47

Where's the stress in: "Beautiful"

1. beau
2. ti
3. ful

00:47

Where's the stress in: "Reptile"

1. Rep
2. Tile

SONNET 75

Write down the two reasons this poem was written.

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1. There are two main kinds of sonnet. Which kind is this one?

1. English: 3 quatrains and a concluding couplet. The last 2 lines rhyme.
2. Italian: an octave and a sestet

2. How many syllables are there per line? (a number)

3. What is the rhyme pattern?

1. abba cddc effe gg
2. abab bcbc cdcd ee

4. who is the "I" in line 1?

5. what is the "it" in line 2?

6. Which words in line 3 mean the same thing?

1. wrote/hand
2. I/hand
3. again/second
4. it/second

7. What does 'his'in line 4 refer back to?

8. What does 'she' in line 5 refer to?

1. The tyde.
2. The woman that the poet is in love with.
3. The poet's mother.
4. The poem.

9. In what sense might the man referred to in line 5 be ‘Vayne’? 

• 'Vayne' (old-­‐fashioned spelling of ‘vain’) conveys arrogance: the woman is suggesting that the poet is arrogant to think he can achieve the impossible.

10. What is the meaning of the phrase 'in vaine' (line 5), and why does the speaker say that waht the main is attempting is 'in vaine'? 

• The word ‘vaine’ (the modern equivalent of which is also ‘vain’) means ‘futile’ or ‘doomed to fail’. The line is a play on the two words: it is both arrogant and pointless to suppose that one can overturn the natural order of things by trying to make something everlasting out of something perishable.

11. What point is the 'I' person making in lines 7 and 8?

• I myself shall ultimately be obliterated (uitgewist), just as my name is obliterated by the waves.

12. From line 9, the "I" person of the first line takes up the conversation. What point does that person make in the last six lines?

• Line 9 marks the break of thought in the sonnet. The poet is opposing the decayb(verval/bederven) of mortal (sterfelijke) things; he is seeking to make his love immortal through his poetry. And, given that we are reading it more than four hundred years later, he has been fairly successful

13. Rewrite line 11 in modern English and translate it into Dutch.

14. What examples of alliteration can be found in this poem?

1. none
2. strand/hand; away/pray; fame/name; subdue/renew
3. waves/washed; paynes/pray; dy/dust; verse/vertues
4. came/made/paynes/pray; vayne/ in vaine / assay

15. What examples of assonance can be found in this poem?

1. none
2. came/made/paynes/pray; vayne/ in vaine / assay
3. waves/washed; paynes/pray; dy/dust; verse/vertues

16. Identify the example of personification in the last six lines. (one word!)

Question 16 explained

 Death is portrayed as the Grim Reaper, (Magere Hein) seeking to subdue (onderwerpen) the world.