Forms of Poetry

The Sonnet The sonnet shows the reader two related but different things (ideas, emotions, states of mind, beliefs, actions, images, etc.) in order to communicate something about them

The Sonnet Sonnets are always 14 lines All sonnets contain a volta. Volta - “turn”, is the essential part of all the sonnet forms. - it is where the second idea is introduced.

The Sonnet There are three major types of sonnet - distinguished by their structure 1.Italian or Petrarchan sonnet 2.Spenserian sonnet 3.English or Shakespearian sonnet

Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet Divided into two sections by its rhyme scheme. First section - Octave (8 lines) ABBAABBA Second section - Sestet (6 lines) Variety of possible rhyme schemes CDCDCD/CDDCDC/CDECDE

London, 1802 by William Wordsworth Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: alter, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

London, 1802 by William Wordsworth Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life’s common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

London, 1802 by William Wordsworth The octave presents the image of the English in decline. The sestet (CDDECE) compares that image of decline to the greater qualities the narrator associates with Milton.

Spenserian Sonnet Variation of the sonnet invented by Edmund Spenser. Builds off the rhyme scheme Spenser used to write his epic poem The Faery Queene ABAB BCBC CDCD EE Creates three separate units plus a final couplet

Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser 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 immortalize! For I myself shall like to this decay, And eek my name be wiped out likewise.

Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: My verse your virtues shall eternize, And in the heavens write your glorious name; Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue, Our love shall live, and later life renew.

Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser The first eight lines set up the speaker’s failed attempts to immortalize his love and her comment that it’s futile to immortalize a mortal creature. The turn actually sets up two different responses to start of the poem 1.The author vows to immortalize his love in a poem 2.Going with the Christian values of the time, he acknowledges that they will continue their love in heaven

English or Shakespearian Sonnet The simplest and most flexible of the sonnet forms. Consist of three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet ABAB CDCD EFEF GG The volta can be placed at the start of the final quatrain, or as late as the rhyming couplet.

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 damask’d, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks’ And in some perfumes there is more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare 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.

Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare The first twelve lines of the sonnet set up Shakespeare’s comparisons of his love to cliché claims made by other poets (eyes like the sun, rosy cheeks, breath like perfume, voice like music, etc.) Only in the final rhyming couplet do we find the volta. Shakespeare notes that his love is still far superior to all of those other women who were falsely compared to impossible things.