The Sonnet: The Must Teach Form Lisa G. Baker Wilburton High School

Poetic Forms Haiku Cinquain Villanelle Diamante Sestina Ode Limmerick Tanka Lots and lots of others

Sonnet Forms Italian/PetrarchanEnglish/Shakespearean 14 lines Can be divided into an octave and sestet Rhyme scheme—abbaabba cdecde (or cdcdcd or cdecde) The octave presents a narrative, states a proposition, or raises a question. The sestet makes an abstract comment on the narrative, applies the proposition, or solves the problem. No more than five rhymes or rhymed couplets in the sestet Iambic pentameter is the usual meter. 14 lines Divided into three quatrains and one couplet Typical rhyme scheme– abab cdcd efef gg The rhyming couplet at the end usually provides a summary of the entire sonnet. Iambic pentameter is the usual meter.

Minor Sonnet Forms MiltonicSpenserian Same octave scheme as an Italian sonnet Sestet is an integral part of the poem rather than a separate conclusion Combines the English and Italian Sonnet Uses three quatrains and a couplet Rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee

Sonnet History *Developed in Italy around the 13 th century *Perfected by Petrarch in the 14 th century *Introduced to England by Thomas Wyatt *Famous sonneteers include the following: Sidney, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, D.G. Rossetti, Meredith, Auden, Geoffrey Hill, E.B. Browning, Longfellow, Robinson, Frost, cummings, and Berryman *Sonnets written in a series are known as a sonnet sequence.

Sonnet - Billy Collins All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now, and after this one just a dozen to launch a little ship on love's storm-tossed seas, then only ten more left like rows of beans. How easily it goes unless you get Elizabethan and insist the iambic bongos must be played and rhymes positioned at the ends of lines, one for every station of the cross. But hang on here wile we make the turn into the final six where all will be resolved, where longing and heartache will find an end, where Laura will tell Petrarch to put down his pen, take off those crazy medieval tights, blow out the lights, and come at last to bed.

“The Sonnet As a Doorway to Poetry” According to Greenblatt, sonnets are “economical, even for poetry.” Sonnets included in this section are the following: Donne’s “Holy Sonnet #9,” Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die,” Seamus Heany’s “Clearances” Activities include discussion, questions, vocabulary, writing

These are a few of my favorite sonnets… “Love Is Not All” by Millay “What my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Millay “Sonnet 73” by Shakespeare

SONNETS ON THE AP TEST 2011 (Form B): Robert Pack “An Echo Sonnet” 2008: Keats “When I have Fears” and Longfellow “Mezzo Cammin” 2001: Wordsworth “London, 1802” and Dunbar “Douglass” 2007: Wilbur “A Barred Owl” 2004: Frost “Acquainted with the Night” 1988: Keats “Bright Star”

AN ECHO SONNET To an Empty Page Voice: Echo: How from emptiness can I make a start? Start And starting, must I master joy or grief? Grief But is there consolation in the heart? Art Oh cold reprieve, where’s natural relief? Leaf Leaf blooms, burns red before delighted eyes. Dies Here beauty makes of dying, ecstasy. See Yet what’s the end of our life’s long disease? Ease If death is not, who is my enemy? Me Then are you glad that I must end in sleep? Leap I’d leap into the dark if dark were true. True And in that night would you rejoice or weep? Weep What contradiction makes you take this view? You I feel your calling leads me where I go. Go But whether happiness is there, you know. No Reprinted by permission of Robert Pack.