sonnet history & form. history of the sonnet italian origins petrarchan conventions english...
TRANSCRIPT
Dramatic Situation
introspective, autobiographical persona
conventions of courtly love (unrequited love
for an unattainable beloved)
no resolution
Arrangement & Organization
not chronological, no consistent narrative
each sonnet represents a specific moment
emotional roller coster
often includes songs as well as sonnets
Petrarchan Conceits
love as a war or a battle
love as a deadly disease or wound
love as torment or torture
love as bondage or slavery
love as a hunt
love as a ship on stormy seas
beloved as ruler or master
power of the beloved’s gaze
physical beauty of the beloved (blazon)
name of the beloved (puns)
immortalizing the beloved in verse
Petrarchan Conceits
pain and pleasure of
lovesickness
oxymoron and paradox
Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,
O anything, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Romeo and Juliet 1.1.175-81
English Sonneteers
Sir Thomas Wyatt
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
Sir Philip Sidney
Edmund Spenser
William Shakespeare
Iambic Pentameter
pentameter five feet
foot a stressed syllable and one or more
unstressed syllables in a repeating pattern
Iambic Pentameter
iambic unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable
repeat, insist, New York ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´
Iambic Pentameter
We mourn in black, why mourn we not in blood?
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day
Iambic Pentameter
We mourn | in black, | why mourn | we not | in blood?
The cur | few tolls | the knell | of part | ing day
˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´
˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´
Italian Sonnet
octave: 8 lines with 2
rhyme sounds {A/B}
turn (or volta)
sestet: 6 lines with 2 (or
3) new rhyme sounds
{c/d/e}
A A
octave usually
follows 1 of 2 set patterns.
sestet displays a
wide variety of patterns.
B B
B A
A B
A A
B B
B A
A B
c c c
d d d
e c d
c d c
d c e
e d e
Italian SonnetDear, cherish this and with it my soul’s will, A Nor for it ran away do it abuse. B Alas, it left poor me your breast to choose B As the blest shrine where it would harbor still. AThen favor show and not unkindly kill A The heart which fled to you, but do excuse B That which for better did the worse refuse, B And pleased I’ll be, though heartless my life spill. ABut if you will be kind and just indeed, c Send me your heart, which in mine’s place shall feed c On faithful love to your devotion bound. dThere shall it see the sacrifices made e Of pure and spotless love, which shall not fade e While soul and body are together found. d
English Sonnet
three quatrains: 4 lines
with 2 rhyme sounds
closing couplet: a pair
of rhyming lines
A
B
A
B
C
D
C
D
E
F
E
F
g
g
English SonnetDear, why should you command me to my rest AWhen now the night doth summon all to sleep? BMethinks this time becometh lovers best; ANight was ordained together friends to keep. BHow happy are all other living things CWhich, though the day disjoin by several flight, DThe quiet evening yet together brings, CAnd each returns unto his love at night. DO thou, that art so courteous else to all, EWhy shouldst thou, Night, abuse me only thus, FThat every creature to his kind doth call EAnd yet ’tis thou dost only sever us. F Well could I wish it would be ever day g If when night comes you bid me go away. g
three quatrains (with
interlocking rhymes)
closing couplet
Spenserian SonnetA
B
A
B
B
C
B
C
C
D
C
D
e
e
Spenserian SonnetMy hungry eyes through greedy covetize, A Still to behold the object of their pain, B With no contentment can themselves suffize: A But having pine and having not complain. BFor lacking it they cannot life sustaine, B And having it they gaze on it the more: C In their amazement like Narcissus vain B Whose eyes him starved: so plenty makes me poor. CYet are mine eyes so fillèd with the store C Of that faire sight, that nothing else they brook, D But loathe the things which they did like before, C And can no more endure on them to look. DAll this world’s glory seemeth vain to me, e And all their shows but shadows, saving she. e
Sonnet History & Form
Italian origins
Petrarchan conventions
English sonneteers
Rules of sonnet form
Italian sonnet
English sonnet
Spenserian sonnet
“Sonnet” by Billy CollinsAll we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now,
and after this one just a dozen
to launch a little ship on love’s storm-tossed seas,
then only ten more left like rows of beans.
How easy it goes unless you get Elizabethan
and insist the iambic bongos must be played
and rhymes positioned at the end of lines,
one for every station of the cross.
But hang on here while we make the turn
into 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.