Sonnets
Sonnets show two related but differing things to the reader in order to communicate something about them. Each of the three major types of sonnets accomplishes this in a somewhat different way. The basic meter of all sonnets in English is iambic pentameter.
Iambic Pentameter An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The rhythm can be written as: da DUM A line of iambic pentameter is five iambic feet in a row: da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM
Types of Sonnets English Italian (or Petrarchan) Sonnet The Spenserian Sonnet
English or Shakespearean Sonnets The English sonnet has the simplest and most flexible pattern of all sonnets, consisting of 3 quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g
Shakespearean Sonnets consist of… Three quatrains (that is, four consecutive lines of verse that make up a stanza or division of lines in a poem) One couplet (two consecutive rhyming lines of verse
Sonnet 18 By William 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 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.
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130) By William Shakespeare My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.
Italian (or Petrarchan) Sonnet The Italian sonnet is divided into two sections by two different groups of rhyming sounds. The first 8 lines is called the octave and rhymes: a b b a The remaining 6 lines is called the sestet and can have either two or three rhyming sounds, arranged in a variety of ways: c d c d c d c d d c d c c d e c d e c d e c e d c d c e d c
The exact pattern of sestet rhymes (unlike the octave pattern) is flexible. In strict practice, the one thing that is to be avoided in the sestet is ending with a couplet (dd or ee), as this was never permitted in Italy. The point here is that the poem is divided into two sections by the two differing rhyme groups. In accordance with the principle (which supposedly applies to all rhymed poetry but often doesn't), a change from one rhyme group to another signifies a change in subject matter. This change occurs at the beginning of L9 in the Italian sonnet and is called the volta, or "turn"; the turn is an essential element of the sonnet form, perhaps the essential element. It is at the volta that the second idea is introduced.
620. Sonnets from the Portuguese Elizabeth Barrett Browning How do I love thee? Let me count the ways? I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love the freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.