ABOUT SONNETS
In Shakespeare’s time, the popular topic for
sonnets was LOVE--or a theme related to love
Sonnets are often written as part of a series, with
each sonnet as a sequel to the previous one.
However, many sonnets could stand alone as
separate poems.
PETRARCHAN SONNET
Divided into two sections:• an octave (ABBA ABBA), • and a sestet (usually CDE CDE, CDC CDC, or CDC
DCD).
Typically the octave will describe a problem, and
the sestet will propose a resolution.
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
Divided into 3 quatrains and 1 couplet:• ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Like the Italian Sonnet, typically the English
sonnet will present a problem in the quatrains, and
suggest a resolution in the couplet.
The meter of Shakespeare's sonnets is iambic
pentameter (except in Sonnet 145).
POETIC FORM
Sonnets have a certain structure as well as a
rhyming pattern.
The Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains
followed by a couplet, the scheme being: abab cdcd
efef gg.
Quatrains are four line stanzas of any kind
IAMBIC PENTAMETER
Iambic Pentameter is the rhythm and metre in
which poets and playwrights wrote in Elizabethan
England. It is a metre that Shakespeare uses.
HEARTBEAT
Quite simply, iambic pentameter sounds like this: • dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM.
It consists of a line of five iambic feet, ten
syllables with five unstressed, and five stressed
syllables.
It is the first and last sound we ever hear; it is the
rhythm of the human heartbeat.
PENTAMETER
An ‘iamb’ is ‘dee Dum’ – the heart beat.
‘Penta’ is from the Greek for five.
Meter is the pattern
So, there are five iambs per line (iambic penta
meter)
IAMBIC PENTAMETER
Iambic Pentameter is percussive and attractive
to the ear and has an effect on the listener's central
nervous system.
An Example of Pentameter from Shakespeare:
but SOFT what LIGHT through YONder
WINdow BREAKS
SYLLABLES
“But soft, what light through yonder window
breaks.”
How many syllables are there in that quotation?
Underline the stressed words.
SONNET 18 – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Quatrain 1 (four-line stanza)
A Shall I compare thee to a summer’s Day?
B Thou art more lovely and more temper ATE :
A Rough winds do shake the darling buds of MAY,
B And summer's lease hath all too short a DATE :
SONNET 18
Quatrain 2 (four-line stanza)
C Sometime too hot the eye of heaven SHINES,
D And often is his gold complexion DIMM'D;
C And every fair from fair sometime de CLINES,
D By chance or nature's changing course un
TRIMM'D;
SONNET 18
Quatrain 3 (four-line stanza)
E But thy eternal summer shall not FADE ,
F Nor lose possession of that fair thou OWEST ,
E Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his
SHADE ,
F When in eternal lines to time thou GROWEST ;
SONNET 18
Couplet (two rhyming lines)
G So long as men can breathe ,or eyes can SEE;
G So long lives this, and this gives life to THEE .
SONNET 130
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 is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat 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.