shakespearean sonnet

17
7 Shakespearean Sonnet By R. S. Gwynn Poetry Project Mallory Smith and Megann Wilson

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Page 1: Shakespearean Sonnet

7

Shakespearean Sonnet

By R. S. Gwynn

Poetry Project

Mallory Smith and Megann Wilson

Page 2: Shakespearean Sonnet

With the first line taken from the TV listings

A man is haunted by his father’s ghost.

Boy meets girl while feuding families fight.

A Scottish king is murdered by his host.

Two couples get lost on a summer night.

A hunchback slaughters all who block his

way.

A ruler’s rivals plot against his life.

A fat man and a prince make rebels pay.

A noble Moor has doubts about his wife.

An English king decides to conquer France.

A duke finds out his best friend is a she.

A forest sets the scene for this romance.

An old man and his daughters disagree.

A Roman leader makes a big mistake.

A sexy queen is bitten by a snake.

Page 3: Shakespearean Sonnet

The Analysis

Our analysis is simple. Each line of this sonnet represents a different play by William Shakespeare

Page 4: Shakespearean Sonnet

Lines 1-5

A man is haunted by his father’s ghost.

“Hamlet”

Boy meets girl while feuding families fight.

“Romeo and Juliet”

A Scottish king is murdered by his host.

“MacBeth”

Two couples get lost on a summer night.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

A hunchback slaughters all who block his way.

“Richard III”

Page 5: Shakespearean Sonnet

Lines 6-10

A ruler’s rivals plot against his life.

“Richard II”

A fat man and a prince make rebels pay.

“Henry IV”

A noble Moor has doubts about his wife.

“Othello”

An English king decides to conquer France.

“Henry V”

A duke finds out his best friend is a she.

“Twelfth Night”

Page 6: Shakespearean Sonnet

Lines 11-14

A forest sets the scene for this romance.

“As You Like It”

An old man and his daughters disagree.

“King Lear”

A Roman leader makes a big mistake.

“Julius Caesar”

A sexy queen is bitten by a snake.

“Antony and Cleopatra”

Page 7: Shakespearean Sonnet

The sonnet is a Shakespearean or English sonnet.

The definition (from mylitlab) “Generally, a sonnet is a one-stanza lyric poem of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter with a specific rhyme scheme. Sonnets address a range of themes, but love is the most common. The Shakespearean (or English) sonnet has three quatrains (4 lines) and a concluding couplet (two lines) with an abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme. The Spenserian sonnet offers a variant rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee. In the Shakespearean sonnet, the sestets describe a problem or situation that is repeated in each sestet with some variation; the remaining couplet offers a summary, usually with a turn of thought.”

The rhyme scheme, as dictated by being a Shakespearean sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg

Sonnet Type

Rhyme Scheme

Page 8: Shakespearean Sonnet

The theme of the sonnet is quite simply, plays by William Shakespeare. Each line represents a different play by the bard.

Theme

Page 9: Shakespearean Sonnet

Alliteration

Definition (from mylitlab) “The repetition of the same sounds in initial consonants or stressed syllables in a sequence of words.”

Example, line 2

“Boy meets girl while feuding families fight”

Page 10: Shakespearean Sonnet

Couplet

Definition (from mylitlab) “A grouping of two rhymed verse lines typically with a common metrical pattern or line length.”

Example, lines 13-14

“A Roman leader makes a big mistake.

A sexy queen is bitten by a snake.”

Page 11: Shakespearean Sonnet

Irony

Definition (from my litlab) “Broadly speaking, irony is an incongruity or contradiction between appearance and reality”

Example, line 10

“A duke finds out his best friend is a she.”

Page 12: Shakespearean Sonnet

Consonance

Definition (from mylitlab) “The repetition of identical or similar consonants in a sequence of words with different vowel sounds.”

Example, line 11

“A forest sets the scene for this romance.”

Page 13: Shakespearean Sonnet

Tone

Definition (from mylitlab) “The author's attitude in a literary text toward the audience or reader (i.e., familiar, formal) or toward the subject itself (i.e., satiric, celebratory, ironic).”

“Shakespearean Sonnet” can be seen in two different tones. One tone is that of a light, humorous poke at the television guide lifestyle society has turned to. The second tone is the seriousness of that “Mcdonaldization” of society. The need to have everything done now (instead of taking one’s time to do something) which prevails with reducing classic works to one liners.

Page 14: Shakespearean Sonnet

Imagery Definition (from mylitlab) “Imagery

(collective form of image) refers to a) depictions of objects or qualities perceived by the five senses; b) the figurative language used to convey abstract ideas concretely; or, more specifically, c) the depiction of visual objects or scenes. Imagery is what makes language and literature concrete and not abstract. “

Example, line 5

“A hunchback slaughters all who block his way.”

Page 15: Shakespearean Sonnet

Analysis Articles

While there are no articles specifically analyzing “Shakespearean Sonnet” by R. S. Gywnn, we did find a few articles that mention his use of sonnets in modern times and his use of humor while broaching issues with modern culture. We agreed with these ideas, as well as the fact that sonnets are not necessarily boring or antiquated.

We provided excerpts from the two articles we liked best. The full articles can be found on the ProQuest database.

Page 16: Shakespearean Sonnet

“Borne Ceaselessly into the past”

by Bruce Bawer

(An excerpt from the article)

“Reading R. S. Gwynn, you can fi nd yourself getting irked at other poets: why can't they all give you this many laughs? For decades now we've been fed the line that formal poetry is by its very nature stiff and stuff y, and that free-verse poems make for more enjoyable company. Ha! The deep, dark, dirty litt le secret is that it 's the formal, even rigorously classical types-one thinks, for example, of the likes of John Frederick Nims and Frederick Turner-who tend to churn out the poems with the greatest entertainment value.

Certainly this is the case with Gwynn, whose No Word of Farewell: Selected Poems 1970-2000 amuses at nearly every turn. To be sure, like Nims and Turner, Gwynn pretty much always has something serious (even, at times, deadly solemn) to say; but more often than not he says it with a smile-or a smirk, or a sneer. Like them, too, his recurring themes are the decay of Western civilization-trash culture, fashionable polit ics, education made E-Z-and the enduring faults, frailt ies, fallacies, foibles, and fraudulencies of the human comedy. Soaked in the classics, positively drenched in poetic history (ancient as well as not so ancient), and suff used by classical wit, Gwynn's poems read like textbook examples of how to transform the personal into the universal for fun and profi t.”

Page 17: Shakespearean Sonnet

“The sonnet: Not just for the lovelorn anymore”by Marilyn L. Taylor

(excerpt from the article)

Objection #2: Sonnets are old-fashioned.

A second reason I heard for avoiding the sonnet is a widespread reluctance to write "oldfashioned"-as if the form somehow guarantees a corny outdated poem. You know this is nonsense if you've read the work of Marilyn Hacker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Molly Peacock, Paul Muldoon, Rhina Espaillat, R.S. Gwynn or the scores of others who frequently speak in sonnets to our own age and in our own quirky language-sometimes with profundity sometimes with irresistible charm.