1. Sonnet Workshop
AP English Lit.: Klenz

2. 1. What are the characteristics of a traditional sonnet?
14 lines
Structure based on Petrarchan (Italian) or Shakespearean (English) models
A volta (turn/shift)
Meter (iambic pentameter)
Customary rhyme scheme

3. 2. Why fourteen lines? No one knows Codified in the 13th century
“liberating limitation”
“intense enough for passion, wide enough for thought”
14 isn’t the end-all, be-all – structure is

4. 3. What is a Petrarchan sonnet?
Italian poet – Petrarch
2-part argument
1st 8 lines (octave) raise an issue
1st 4 lines (quatrain) establish subject,
2nd quatrain complicates it
Last 6 lines (sestet) develops the subject
Respond to issue
Comment on problem
Resolve conflict
Rhyme scheme (3 possible)
abba abba cdecde
abba abba cdeced
abba abba cdcdee

5. 4. What is the turn or volta in the Petrarchan sonnet?
It is the essence of the sonnet – what makes a sonnet a sonnet
A change in direction
An answer to a ?
A solution to a problem
Deepens the subject

6. 5. What is a Shakespearean sonnet?
“English” or “Elizabethan”
Often uses 3 quatrains to develop theme or examine a subject from 3 perspectives before bringing argument to close in final couplet
4-fold division of thought or feeling
Rhyme scheme
abab cdcd efef gg

7. 6. What is the purpose of the couplet in the Shakespearean sonnet?
Stands alone as a formal unit
Has rhetorical power –
Convincing, powerful resolution
For, so, therefore, and, yet (propositional)
Syllogistic logic
Witty, self-conscious – “louder” – memorable
Aphoristic quality

8. 7. Why iambic pentameter? Closer to speech Rarely perfect
Sonnet will follow the most common meter of the language in which it is written
For English, this is iambic pentameter
Short stress followed by long (2 syllables in a foot of iamb, 5 feet = 10 syllables)

9. 8. Why rhyme? Connects – partnership of words
Function – marker signaling the end of a rhythmic unit
Petrarchan octave- 2 rhymes bind the argument
Options in sestet expand for resolution – 3 rhymes in six lines
Italian language much richer in rhyme than English (2 more rhymes necessary – f and g)

10. 9. Can there be an unrhymed sonnet?
For purists, no.
For non-traditionalists, yes.
Rhyme is a key element but not the only one
Must maintain at least two elements of traditional form

11. 10. Can a sonnet be more (or less) than 14 lines?
For purists, no.
For non-traditionalists, yes – in ratio
8:6 ratio becomes 12:9

12. Shakespeare’s sonnets
154 of them
Complex dramatic situation
1st 126 address a young man –aka “the fair youth”
Last 28 speak to or are about the poet’s mistress –aka “the dark lady
3 characters – poet, youth, lady
The older poet (speaker) has affection for both
The young man’s attentions are courted by rival poets
The lady, who is the sensual and mysterious mistress of the older poet, has also seduced the youth

13. Shakespeare’s sonnets, continued
The complex dramatic situation set up by Shakespeare allows him to explore four major themes:
The nature of love
Vicissitudes of time
The function of poetry
The permanence of art