Sonnets

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Sonnets
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Poetic Terms Definitions

• Metaphor
• A direct comparison between two things.
• Examples
• Life is a dream
• Love is a vale of tears.
• Life is a hard road.
• Extended Metaphor
• A metaphor that is extended throughout the work
  of a poem
• Metaphors do NOT contain the words like or as.

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Poetic Terms Definitions

• Quatrain
• A stanza or poem of four lines.
• Sonnet (little song)
• A poem of fourteen lines usually written in
  rhymed iambic pentameter.
• Rhyme Scheme
• The pattern of end rhyme in a poem characterized
  by assigning a letter to each line to denote the
  words that rhyme with each other at the end of
  the lines. (abab, cdcd, efef, gg)

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Three Forms of Sonnets

• Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet
• Petrarchan sonnet 14 lines long, made up of two
  parts- an eight line section (octave) followed by
  a six-line section (sestet). The octave usually
  raises an issue, asks a question or poses a
  problem. The sestet solves it or responds to
  it.
• Rhyme Scheme
• Octave a, b, b, a a, b, b, a
• Sestet (varies) c,d,e c,d,e OR c,d,c d, c, d

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Three Forms of Sonnets

• Elizabethan (English) (Shakespearean) sonnet
• Elizabethan sonnet 14 lines long. Consists of
  three quatrains (four-line stanzas) and a final
  couplet (two rhymed lines).
• Rhyme Scheme
• a, b, a, b
• c, d, c, d
• e, f, e, f
• g, g

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Three Forms of Sonnets

• Spenserian sonnet
• Spenserian sonnet 14 lines long variation of the
  Shakespearean sonnet but uses an interlocking
  rhyme scheme. The last rhyme of the first
  quatrain becomes the first rhyme in the second
  quatrain and so on. The third quatrain is
  followed by a final couplet.
• Rhyme Scheme
• a, b, a, b
• b, c, b, c
• c, d, c, d
• e, e