the sonnet: the must teach form lisa g. baker wilburton high school [email protected]
TRANSCRIPT
Poetic Forms
HaikuCinquainVillanelleDiamanteSestina
OdeLimmerickTankaLots and lots of
others
Sonnet Forms
Italian/Petrarchan English/Shakespearean
14 lines Can be divided into an octave and
sestet Rhyme scheme—abbaabba cdecde
(or cdcdcd or cdecde) The octave presents a narrative, states
a proposition, or raises a question. The sestet makes an abstract
comment on the narrative, applies the proposition, or solves the problem.
No more than five rhymes or rhymed couplets in the sestet
Iambic pentameter is the usual meter.
14 lines Divided into three quatrains
and one couplet Typical rhyme scheme– abab
cdcd efef gg The rhyming couplet at the
end usually provides a summary of the entire sonnet.
Iambic pentameter is the usual meter.
Minor Sonnet Forms
Miltonic Spenserian
Same octave scheme as an Italian sonnet
Sestet is an integral part of the poem rather than a separate conclusion
Combines the English and Italian Sonnet
Uses three quatrains and a couplet
Rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee
Sonnet History*Developed in Italy around the 13th century
*Perfected by Petrarch in the 14th century
*Introduced to England by Thomas Wyatt
*Famous sonneteers include the following: Sidney, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, D.G. Rossetti, Meredith, Auden, Geoffrey Hill, E.B. Browning, Longfellow, Robinson, Frost, cummings, and Berryman
*Sonnets written in a series are known as a sonnet sequence.
Sonnet - Billy Collins
All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now,and after this one just a dozento launch a little ship on love's storm-tossed seas,then only ten more left like rows of beans.How easily it goes unless you get Elizabethanand insist the iambic bongos must be playedand rhymes positioned at the ends of lines,one for every station of the cross.But hang on here wile we make the turninto the final six where all will be resolved,where longing and heartache will find an end,where Laura will tell Petrarch to put down his pen,take off those crazy medieval tights,blow out the lights, and come at last to bed.
“The Sonnet As a Doorway to Poetry”
According to Greenblatt, sonnets are “economical, even for poetry.”
Sonnets included in this section are the following: Donne’s “Holy Sonnet #9,” Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die,” Seamus Heany’s “Clearances”
Activities include discussion, questions, vocabulary, writing
These are a few of my favorite sonnets…
“Love Is Not All” by Millay“What my lips have kissed, and where,
and why” by Millay “Sonnet 73” by Shakespeare
SONNETS ON THE AP TEST
2011 (Form B): Robert Pack “An Echo Sonnet”
2008: Keats “When I have Fears” and Longfellow “Mezzo Cammin”
2001: Wordsworth “London, 1802” and Dunbar “Douglass”
2007: Wilbur “A Barred Owl”2004: Frost “Acquainted with the Night”1988: Keats “Bright Star”
AN ECHO SONNETTo an Empty Page
Voice: Echo:
How from emptiness can I make a start? StartAnd starting, must I master joy or grief? GriefBut is there consolation in the heart? ArtOh cold reprieve, where’s natural relief? LeafLeaf blooms, burns red before delighted eyes. DiesHere beauty makes of dying, ecstasy. SeeYet what’s the end of our life’s long disease? EaseIf death is not, who is my enemy? MeThen are you glad that I must end in sleep? LeapI’d leap into the dark if dark were true. TrueAnd in that night would you rejoice or weep? WeepWhat contradiction makes you take this view? YouI feel your calling leads me where I go. GoBut whether happiness is there, you know. No
Reprinted by permission of Robert Pack.