The Sonnet

1
The Sonnet
2
A sonnet is

• a lyric poem
• consisting of fourteen lines
• written in iambic pentameter
• with a definite rime scheme
• and a definite thought structure

3
A lyric poem

• Deals with emotions, feelings

4
Iambic pentameter consists of

• five measures, units, or meters, of
• iambs

5
An iamb is a metrical foot consisting ofan
unaccented syllable Ufollowed by an accented
syllable /.

• U /
• a gain
• U / U /
• im mor tal ize

6
Iambic pentameter
1 2 3
4 5

• U / U / U / U / U
  /
• One day I wrote her name u pon the strand,
• U / U / U / U /
  U /
• But came the waves and wash ed it a way
• U / U / U / U / U /
• A gain I wrote it with a sec ond hand,
• U / U / U / U
  / U /
• But came the tide, and made my pains his prey
• Edmund Spenser, Amoretti, Sonnet 75

7
Rime scheme

• Petrarchan (Italian) rime scheme
• abba, abba, cd, cd, cd
• abba, abba, cde, cde
• Shakespearean (English, or Elizabethan) rime
  scheme
• abab, cdcd, efef, gg

8
Sonnet 18

• 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 date
• Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
• And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
• And every fair from fair sometime declines,
• By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed
• But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
• Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
• Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
  
• When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
• So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
• So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

A B A B C d C D E F E F G G
9
Thought structure

• Octave/ sestet
• The octave, eight lines, presents a situation
  or idea.
• The sestet (sextet), six lines, responds, to
  the situation or idea in the octave.
• Quatrain, quatrain, quatrain, couplet
• Each quatrain, four lines, describes and idea
  or situation which leads to a conclusion or
  response in the couplet, two lines.

10
Sonnet 18
The octave describes the ways in which the
summers day is inferior to the beloved.

• 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 date
• Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
• And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
• And every fair from fair sometime declines,
• By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed
• But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
• Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
• Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
• When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,So
  long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,So long
  lives this, and this gives life to thee.

The sestet describes the ways in which the
beloved is superior to the summers day.
11
Sonnet 29
The diction of the octave implies the speakers
self-pity and depression.

• When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
• I all alone beweep my outcast state,
• And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
• And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
• Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
• Featured like him, like him with friends
  possessed,
• Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
• With what I most enjoy contented least
• Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
• Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
• Like to the lark at break of day arising
• From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate
• For thy sweet love remembered such wealth
  bringsThat then I scorn to change my state with
  kings.

The sestets diction, in conrast, is joyful.
12
Sonnet 73

That time of year thou mayst in me beholdWhen
yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hangUpon
those boughs which shake against the cold,Bare
ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds
sang.In me thou see'st the twilight of such
dayAs after sunset fadeth in the westWhich 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.
1st Quatrain Year - Fall
2nd Quatrain Day - Twilight
3rd Quatrain Fire - Coals
This is ll.1-12
13
Sonnet 73
Year
That time is running out is what the beloved
perceives.
Day
Time is rapidly shortening.
Hour
14
The Unsonnet

• Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to
  show,
• That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of
  my pain,
• Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make
  her know,
• Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,
• I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of
  woe
• Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain,
• Oft turning others' leaves to see if thence would
  flow
• Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my
  sun-burned brain.
• But words came halting forth, wanting invention's
  stay
• Invention, nature's child, fled step-dame Study's
  blows,
• And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my
  way.
• Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in
  my throes,Biting my truant pen, beating myself
  for spite,Fool, said my muse to me, look in thy
  heart and write.
• Philip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella, Sonnet 1

15

• Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to
  show,
• That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of
  my pain,
• Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make
  her know,
• Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,

16

• I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of
  woe
• Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain,
• Oft turning others' leaves to see if thence would
  flow
• Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my
  sun-burned brain.

17

• But words came halting forth, wanting invention's
  stay
• Invention, nature's child, fled step-dame Study's
  blows,
• And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my
  way.
• Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in
  my throes,Biting my truant pen, beating myself
  for spite,Fool, said my muse to me, look in thy
  heart and write.

18

• / U / / U /
• Plea sure might cause her read,
• / U / / U /
• read ing might make her know
• Trochee / U Spondee / /

19
The Unsonnet

• Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to
  show,
• That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of
  my pain,
• Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make
  her know,
• Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,
• I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of
  woe
• Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain,
• Oft turning others' leaves to see if thence would
  flow
• Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my
  sun-burned brain.
• But words came halting forth, wanting invention's
  stay
• Invention, nature's child, fled step-dame Study's
  blows,
• And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my
  way.
• Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in
  my throes,Biting my truant pen, beating myself
  for spite,Fool, said my muse to me, look in thy
  heart and write.
• Philip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella, Sonnet 1

20
(No Transcript)