Happy, Happy New Year! Please take the handouts from the table. We begin working with sonnets today! Woo-hoo! You will have a memorization and recitation to perform NEXT TUESDAY! I need you to form groups of 3 (5 th hour—I am okay with a group of 2, but want mostly groups of 3), write names down on a half sheet of paper and turn into me NOW! You will have memorization and explication homework this weekend. You will get your assigned sonnet tomorrow. If you are absent, me for your sonnet! Everyone goes on TUESDAY! 1

2 Basic Sonnet Information

3 Originally started in Italy in the 13 th Century by Petrarch The word sonnet means little song: sonetto in Italian There are different kinds of sonnets: Petrarchan and Shakespearean will be our focus History of the sonnet

4 Two related but differing things are shown to the reader in order to communicate an idea about them Employ a volta: a turn or twist that creates the tension or resolution of ideas; it acts as a surprise ending Ideas in sonnets

5 14 lines Written in iambic pentameter (a term for a measurement)iambic pentameter –Each line consists of 10 syllables –Every other syllable in the line is stressed to give it a rhythm that sounds like da-DUM, da- DUM Employs a volta Components of all sonnets

6 Petrarchan Sonnets Named after Francesco Petrarca (July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374; great influence on Italian language Sometimes known as Father of Humanism: believed in an education of grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry and moral philosophy Sonnet form was created by him and made popular through Europe

7 Divided into two sections; first 8 lines is called the octave and rhymes: –a b b a 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; rhyme scheme more flexible than the octave –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 ***each letter represents a line Volta happens as the sonnet goes from the octave to the sestet in line 9; but can be flexible, too; pay attention for shifts in ideas Components of a Petrarchan sonnet

8 In a Petrarchan sonnet; the rhyme change from the octave to the sestet indicates the turn or volta; the volta happens in line 9. "London, 1802" by William Wordsworth Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: a England hath need of thee: she is a fen b Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, b Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, a Have forfeited their ancient English dower a Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; b Oh! raise us up, return to us again; b And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. a Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; c Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: d Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, d So didst thou travel on life's common way, e In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart c The lowliest duties on herself did lay. e Octave lines 1-8 Sestet line 9-14

9 Shakespearean or English sonnets William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets Inspired by Petrarch; made the sonnet his own Ideas about love and relationships No one sure of the exact sonnet order Speculation about to whom these are written

10 Broken into 3 quatrains –A quatrain is a group of 4 lines The last 2 lines are called a couplet. Rhyme scheme for a Shakespearean sonnet: abab, cdcd, efef, gg Volta is most flexible in this sonnet; line 9 or in the couplet, but sometimes can be found in other places in the sonnet (you have to understand the sonnet to find the volta!) Components of a Shakespearean sonnet

11 A (sun) B (red) A (dun) B (head) C (white) D (cheeks) C (delight) D (reeks) E (know) F (sound) E (go) F (ground) G (rare) G (compare) Quatrain 1 (lines 1-4) Quatrain 2 (lines 5-8) Quatrain 3 (lines 9-12) Couplet (lines 13-44) Volta-look for transition words such as: but, therefore, however, yet, or, so. These words are a good place to start, but make sure the idea is changing.

1. Read passage several times. 2. Divide into phrases/complete sentences 3. Look up words I don’t know. 4. Underline verbs. Who is doing what? 5. Write in own words. Steps for Explication

1. Read passage several times. Sonnet 18 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 dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed; 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.

2. Divide into phrases/complete sentences Sonnet 18 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 dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed; 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.

3. Look up words I don’t know. Sonnet 18 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 dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed; 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.

4. Underline verbs. Who is doing what? Sonnet 18 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 dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed; 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. Who is comparing? The speaker “I”. Who is lovely and more temperate? The person the speaker is talking to.

5. Write in your own words: use the correct pronouns: I; you; we; me Sonnet 18 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 dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed; 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.