1. Sonnets

2. Poetry Vocabulary
Stanza: a group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit (it looks like a paragraph)
Meter: regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry
Couplet: two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme
Volta: the shift in thought—from question to answer, or problem to solution (usually contains the words “but” or “yet”)

3. Poetry Vocabulary Continued
Quatrain: a stanza that has 4 lines
Octave: a stanza that has 8 lines
Sestet: a stanza that has 6 lines
Iambic pentameter: line of poetry that contains 10 syllables, alternating in an unstressed/stressed pattern

4. What is a sonnet?
Sonnets are poems that meet the following requirements:
14 lines long
Written in iambic pentameter (most of the time)
Follow a set rhyme scheme
Contains a “shift” (Volta) located at a certain point of the poem

5. There are 3 types of sonnets:
Petrarchan (also known as Italian): Named after the Italian poet, Francesco Petrarch
Shakespearean: Named after William Shakespeare
Spenserian: Named after Edmund Spenser

6. Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet
Made up of an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines)
The octave rhyme scheme: abbaabba
The sestet rhyme scheme: cdecde, cdcdcd or cdedce
The shift comes in between the octave and the sestet
Petrarchan (Italian) A B
A Octave (8 lines)
A Volta (shift) C D E
C Sestet (6 lines)

7. Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnets Continued…
The octave typically:
Presents a narrative
States a proposition
Or raises a question
The sestet:
drives home the narrative by making an abstract comment
applies the proposition
or solves the problem.

8. Shakespearean Sonnets
Made up of 3 quatrains (4 lines) and one couplet (2 lines)
The quatrain rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef
The couplet rhyme scheme: gg
The shift comes either after 8 lines or 10 lines
Shakespearean A B C D
C 3 quatrains E
F The Volta (shift) F
G Rhyming
G Couplet

9. Shakespearean Sonnets Continued…
Each quatrain develops a specific idea that is still related to the other quatrains
The Shakespearean sonnet has the easiest rhyme scheme

10. Spenserian Sonnet
Similar to the Shakespearean sonnet because it has 3 quatrains (4 lines) and 1 couplet (2 lines), but it complicates the rhyme scheme by linking the quatrains
Quatrain rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd
Couplet rhyme scheme: ee
This type of sonnet is very rare among modern poets

11. More poetry terms (pg. 1019)
Narrative poem and lyric poem can be found by looking up “poetry”
Symbolism is the same thing as symbol
Denotation means the dictionary definition of a word
We will go over fixed-form and free-form poems later