1. The true originator of the sonnet form was the 14th century Italian poet, Francesco Petrarch, who wrote 366 sonnets for Laura, a woman he loved, but could not have. She was married and died of the plague, therefore representing the epitome of “unrequited” love.
Laura de Noves

2. Francesco Petrarch (14th century Italian, for Lara)

3. The English (or “Shakespearean”) Sonnet
The Sonnet
William Mulready
1839

4. The end of the poem offers a solution. What is the solution?
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 wand’rest 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.
Notice: There is a “problem” introduced in the first part of the poem. What is the problem?
The end of the poem offers a solution. What is the solution?

5. Notice: How many lines are in the sonnet?
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 wand’rest 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.
Notice: How many lines are in the sonnet?

6. Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? a
Thou art more lovely and more temperate b
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, a
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date b
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 wand’rest 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.
Notice: the rhyming words at the ends of the lines. Do you see a pattern? Continue to mark these as started - a new letter for each new rhyming sound. How many different rhyming sounds are there?
The rhymes create sets of lines. A set of four lines is called a “quatrain.” A set of two lines is called a “couplet.” Where is the “problem” set forth? And where is the “solution”?

7. Sonnet 18 Notice: • The unstressed (u) and
u / u / u / u / u /
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 wand’rest 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.
Notice:
• The unstressed (u) and
stressed (/) syllable pairs in
each line of the poem
(mark them):
u / u / u / u / u / u /
Each pair is called a “foot.” The unstressed / stressed pattern is called an “iamb” (think:
“I am,” “I am,” “I am”) It is a natural rhythm in spoken English.
How many pairs of iambic feet are in each line?
A sonnet is written in iambic pentameter.

8. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
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 wand’rest 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.
Notice:
Where does the stream of thought change direction?
The word, “but” signals an exception.
This turn is called a “volta”.
Think about meter not in isolation, but rather, in terms of how it contributes to meaning. What do you notice about the stressed words in the last line?

9. My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130)
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.

10. Review:
• A sonnet is composed of fourteen lines in iambic
pentameter.
• A sonnet has a definite rhyme scheme. The rhyme
scheme of the English sonnet separates the poem
into three quatrains and a couplet.
• A sonnet contains a “problem” in the first part of the
poem, which is typically resolved in the final couplet.

11. Disyllable Trisyllable u / iamb u u / anapaest
English Metrical Patterns (aka “Prosody”)
Disyllable Trisyllable
u / iamb u u / anapaest
“If music be the food of love, play on!” “And the moon never beams without
Shakespeare bringing me dreams, / of the beautiful
Annabelle Lee”
- Edgar Allen Poe
/ u trochee / u u dactyl
“Tyger, Tyger, burning bright “Picture yourself in a boat on a river
In the forests of the night . . .” with tangerine trees and marmalade skies”
- William Blake - The Beatles
u u pyrrhus
/ / spondee