The Sonnet Game

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The Sonnet Game

• Or how fashioning poems becomes a metaphor for
  Early Modern English creative life

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Key terms

• Blank verse
• Common meter
• Broadsides
• Shaped verse
• Counterfeiting
• Pastoral
• Sprezzatura
• Enjambment
• Tottels Miscellany
• Fashioning/ Self-Fashioning

• Sonnet
• Italian or Petrarchan
• English or Shakespearean
• Spenserian
• Octave Sestet
• Quatrains Couplet
• Turn, Epigram
• Conceit
• Sonnet Sequence
• Persona

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Focusing on lyric poetry means we pay attention
to quantitative ANDqualitative aspects of verse

• Poetic forms (e.g. elegy, sonnet, etc.) BY ch.
  12
• Meter (the number of syllables and the rhythm
  they take) BY ch. 12
• Figurative language (especially images and
  metaphors) BY ch. 6

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The Early Moderns are crazy about meterit shows
their intellectual creativity

• Blank verse (drama) Unrhymed, enjambed iambic
  pentameter think Shakespeare!
• Common meter (hymns) A closed poetic quatrain,
  rhyming A B A B, in which iambic tetrameter
  alternates with iambic trimeter. (e.g. Amazing
  Grace)
• Ballad meter (popular verse) Common meter with
  the rhyme scheme X A X Abroadsides

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• The Lord to me a shepherd is, X
• Want therefore shall not I, A
• He in the folds of tender grass X
• Doth make me down to lie A
• To waters calm he gently leads X
• Restore my soul doth he B
• He doth in paths of righteousness X
• For his names sake lead me. B
• Yea though in valley of deaths shade
• I walk, none ill Ill fear,
• Because thou art with me, thy rod,
• And staff my comfort are.
• For me a table thou hast spread
• In presence of my foes
• Thou dost anoint my head with oil
• My cup it over-flows.
• Goodness and mercy surely shall
• All my days follow me
• And in the Lords house I shall dwell

• The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.
• He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
• He leadeth me beside the still waters.
• He restoreth my soul
• He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for
  His name' sake.
• Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
  shadow of death,
• I will fear no evil For thou art with me
• Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
• Thou preparest a table before me in the presence
  of mine enemies
• Thou annointest my head with oil
• My cup runneth over.
• Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
  days of my life,
• and I will dwell in the House of the Lord
  forever.
• --King James Bible, 1611

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Shaped verse layout of text enhances content
(possible with printed texts) Herberts Easter
Wings
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George Herbert, The Altar
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Poetic poses allow counterfeiting of emotion,
values, beliefs, stances. Common personae
shepherds, lovers, scholars. Common stances

• The pastoral (Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to
  his Love)
• The witty (Raleigh, The Nymphs Reply to the
  Shepherd)
• The amorous (successful or otherwise) (Sidney,
  Spenser, Shakespeare, etc.)
• The spiritual (Donne, Herbert)

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Their Favorite Game The Sonnet

• We can die by it, if not live by love, And if
  unfit for tomb or hearseOur legend be, it will
  be fit for verse And if no piece of chronicle
  we prove, We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms
  As well a well-wrought urn becomesThe greatest
  ashes, as half-acre tombs, And by these hymns,
  all shall approve Us canonized for love
• ----John Donne, The Canonization

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Why sonnets? Pretty rooms

• Display of sprezzaturaart without visible
  effort, creativity with self-governance
• Tension of expressing an idea about love,
  politics, or spirituality within a
  fiercely-regulated form (fourteen lines of iambic
  pentameter)
• Use of enjambment to fight the rhyme scheme
• Lots of puns, metaphors, and signs of verbal
  cleverness
• Intellectual puzzle as a sign of humanist
  learning
• Art about making art (originally circulated among
  courtiers Tottels Miscellany (1557) is first
  print ed.)

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The types of sonnets

• Italian or Petrarchan, popularized by Wyatt and
  Songs and Sonnets (a/k/a Tottels Miscellany)
• English or Shakespearean, probably invented by
  Surrey and popularized by guess who
• Spenserian, invented by Edmund Spenser, a
  combination of the two (bravura, sprezzatura)

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Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnets

• Only five rhyming sounds allowed (Italian has
  more words ending in vowelsits easier!)
• Structure is an octave rhyming ABBAABBAfollowed
  by a sestet with several possible arrangements of
  the C, D, E sounds
• There is a turn of thought after the octave so
  that the sestet answers, completes, and/or
  releases the tension of the octave
• Lines are enjambed to fight the sense of
  couplets syntax vs. meter creates tension
• Big names Wyatt Surrey

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Example of Italian Sonnet
My mouth doth water, and my breast doth swell, A
My tongue doth itch, my thoughts in labor be B
Listen then, lordings, with good ear to me, B
For of my life I must a riddle tell. A Toward
Aurora's court a nymph doth dwell, A Rich in all
beauties which man's eye can see B Beauties so
far from reach of words that we B Abase her
praise saying she doth excel. A Rich in the
treasure of deserved renown, C Rich in the riches
of a royal heart, D Rich in those gifts which
give th' eternal crown C Who, though most rich
in these and every part D Which make the patents
of true worldly bliss, E Hath no misfortune but
that Rich she is. E
--Sir Philip Sidney
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English (Shakespearean) Sonnets

• Uses seven sounds in a strict rhyming
  patternABAB CDCD EFEF GG
• Three quatrains and one couplet
• Final couplet is usually epigrammatic (a summing
  up, the sonnets sound bite)
• Sense of build-up through the three quatrains,
  then a conclusion or release in the couplet

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Example of English Sonnet
A witless gallant, a young wench that wooed
A (Yet his dull spirit her not one jot could
move), B Entreated me, as e'er I wished his good
A To write him but one sonnet to his love B
When I, as fast as e'er my pen could trot,
C Poured out what first from quick invention
came, D Nor never stood one word thereof to
blot, C Much like his wit, that was to use the
same D But with my verses he his mistress won,
E Who doted on the dolt beyond all measure.
F But see, for you to heav'n for phrase I run, E
And ransack all Apollo's golden treasure
F Yet by my froth this fool his love obtains,
G And I lose you for all my wit and pains. G
---Michael
Drayton
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Spenserian sonnets

• Written by Edmund Spenser and very few other
  people because they are so difficult technically
• Only allows 5 rhymes (from Italian) but uses
  quatrain/couplet structure (from
  English)interlaced stanzas
• Looks like thisABAB BCBC CDCD EE

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Example of Spenserian Sonnet
Obscurely yet most surely called to praise, AAs
sometimes summer calls us all, I said BThe
hills are heavens full of branching ways A Where
star-nosed moles fly overhead the dead B I said
the trees are mines in air, I said B See how the
sparrow burrows in the sky! CAnd then I
wondered why this mad instead B Perverts our
praise to uncreation, why C Such savour's in
this wrenching things awry. C Does sense so
stale that it must needs derange DThe world to
know it? To a praiseful eye C Should it not be
enough of fresh and strange D That trees grow
green, and moles can course in clay, E And
sparrows sweep the ceiling of our day? E
---Richard
Wilbur
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Taking them to the next level

• Sonnet sequences link a group of sonnets together
  to tell a story, usually of a courtship
• The poet may give himself and his lovers
  classical psuedonyms (e.g. Astrophil and Stella),
  pretend they are all shepherds or pastoral
  characters, and otherwise counterfeit the
  relationships to each other to show off the
  authors persona (self-fashioning)
• The challenge in a sequence is to use the same
  form without becoming repetitive (i.e. a
  challenge of fashioning) and Shakespeares sonnet
  sequence has plots and subplots, characters, and
  contains 154 sonnets

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When reading sonnets

• Read them aloud. Theres a music in the rhythm,
  and part of the fun is finding the variations.
• Look for the conceits, the central ideas or
  metaphors with which the writer is playing
• Watch the tension of enjambment vs. rhyme as the
  writer tries to cram a big idea in this very tiny
  space

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Shakespeare, Sonnet 73
              That time of year thou mayst in me
behold               When yellow leaves, or
none, or few, do hang               Upon those
boughs which shake against the cold,            
  Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds
sang.               In me thou see'st the
twilight of such day               As after
sunset fadeth in the west,               Which
by and by black night doth take away,          
    Death's second self, that seals up all in
rest.               In me thou see'st the
glowing of such fire             That on the
ashes of his youth doth lie,             As the
death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.  
          This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy
love more strong,             To love that well
which thou must leave ere long
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(No Transcript)
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Verbal display

• Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will,
• And Will to boot, and Will in overplus
• More than enough am I that vex thee still,
• To thy sweet will making addition thus.
• Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
• Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?
• Shall will in others seem right gracious,
• And in my will no fair acceptance shine?
• The sea all water, yet receives rain still
• And in abundance addeth to his store
• So thou, being rich in Will, add to thy Will
• One will of mine, to make thy large Will more.
• Let no unkind, no fair beseechers kill
• Think all but one, and me in that one Will.
• --Shakespeare, Sonnet
  135

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Sonnets Everyone Must Know

• Wyatt, The Long Love, p. 420
• Spenser, Amoretti 75, p. 580
• Donne, Holy Sonnets 10, p. 815
• Shakespeare, Sonnet 18, p. 737
• Shakespeare, Sonnet 60, p. 739
• Shakespeare, Sonnet 73, p. 739
• Shakespeare, Sonnet 130, p. 741
• and.your tables sonnets.

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So when you study your sonnet

• Figure out which of the three kinds of sonnets it
  is (when in doubt, look at the beginnings of
  lines 5, 9, and 13)
• Figure out the rhyme scheme (remember that
  pronunciations have changed over 400 yearsuse
  the OED)
• Figure out the conceit the writer is playing with
• Practice reading it to emphasize the
  enjambmentdont read it like Dr. Seuss!
• Check the OED for help with word meanings
• and

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• Above all, have fun! Writing sonnets, then
  reading them aloud, was a game that people in the
  Early Modern period enjoyed as a way to show off
  their intellect and creativity. Just as modern
  musicians want to create lyrics that sound
  spontaneous but that they have worked on for many
  hours, sonneteers used these forms to express
  many of the same emotions and feelings.