1. Sonnets: An Overview
p. 312

2. Scorn Not the Sonnet William Wordsworth
Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned, Mindless of its just honours; with this key Shakespeare unlocked his heart; the melody Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound; A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound; With it Camoens soothed an exile's grief; The Sonnet glittered a gay myrtle leaf Amid the cypress with which Dante crowned His visionary brow: a glow-worm lamp, It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land To struggle through dark ways; and when a damp Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand The Thing became a trumpet; whence he blew Soul-animating strains--alas, too few!

3. Sonnet
Derived from the Italian word sonetto, meaning “little sound; song”
Fourteen-line lyric poem that conforms to strict patterns of rhythm and rhyme

4. Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet
In Italy, the sonnet form was perfected by Francesco Petrarca, known in English as Petrarch
Known as the Petrarchan or Italian sonnet
Form composed of two parts:
Octave (an eight-line section; ABBAABBA)
Sestet (a six-line section; CDECDE or variations*)
Two-part statement: question-answer, problem-solution, or theme-comment
Volta (the turn or transition between the two) is usually found on the ninth line
Turn is a metaphorical term to represent the speaker’s “turn” from one thing to another
*c d c d c d c d e c e d c d d c d c c d c e d c

5. Sonnet 42 (Petrarch)
The spring returns, the spring wind softly blowing
Sprinkles the grass with gleam and glitter of showers,
Powdering pearl and diamond, dripping with flowers,
Dropping wet flowers, dancing the winters going;
The swallow twitters, the groves of midnight are glowing
With nightingale music and madness; the sweet fierce powers
Of love flame up through the earth; the seed-soul towers
And trembles; nature is filled to overflowing…
The spring returns, but there is no returning
Of spring for me. O heart with anguish burning!
She that unlocked all April in a breath
Returns not…And these meadows, blossoms, birds
These lovely gentle girls—words, empty words
As bitter as the black estates of death!
A octave B A
C volta
C sestet D E

6. Shakespearean/English Sonnet
Not invented by Shakespeare but refined by him
Formal organization and logical ideas by rules of sonnet form
Fourteen iambic pentameter lines
Three quatrains (four lines) and a couplet (two lines)
Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
Organization of ideas varies from sonnet to sonnet
Final couplet is typically a turn of great impact,
Final summary or explanation of all that came before

7. Sonnet 18 (Shakespeare)
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 dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd. But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
A first
B quatrain A B
C second
D quatrain C D
E third
F quatrain E F
G couplet G

8. Sonnet 116 Identify the rhyme scheme of the sonnet
Label the groupings of lines (octave, sestet, quatrain, tercet, couplet)
Look up vocabulary terms
Paraphrase the poem
Answer the questions about the structure and overall meaning of the poem

9. Spensarian Sonnet Named for Edmund Spenser
Combines Italian and the English forms
three quatrains and a couplet
linking rhymes between the quatrains (ABAB BCBC CDCD EE)
Similar to terza rima’s interlocking rhyme scheme

10. One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand
One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide and made my pains his prey. Vain man (said she), that dost in vain assay A mortal thing so to immortalise; For I myself shall like to this decay, And eke my name be wiped out likewise. Not so (quod I); let baser things devise To die in dust, but you shall live by fame; My verse your virtues rare shall eternise, And in the heavens write your glorious name: Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue, Our love shall live, and later life renew. Edmund Spenser (1552–1599)