The Sonnet Steeped in tradition

Lets see what you can find.  Look over your handout. On one side is an English Sonnet (Shakespeare), on the other is an Italian sonnet (Petrarch).  From these two examples, what does it seem are the characteristics of a Sonnet?  What do the two poems have in common?  How do they differ?  Please answer all the questions in your poetry notebook in the notes section.

For You, Two Forms Italian (Petrarchan) English (Shakespearian)

The Italian Sonnet  A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter. An iamb is a poetic foot with a count of two syllables, where the second one is stressed. Pentameter is a poetic line with five feet: E.g. "Loving /in truth, /and fain /in verse /my love /to show.“  Three stanzas -- two quatrains and a sestet. A quatrain is a stanza of four lines; a sestet is a stanza of six lines. Traditionally the first quatrain introduces the subject, the second complicates the subject, and the sestet resolves or alters the subject in some way.  A rhyme scheme of abba abba in the quatrains, and cdc dcd with some variations in the sestet. Traditionally the poet seeks to make the rhymes in the seset as different as possible from the two quatrains.  Conceit : an elaborate and surprising comparison between two apparently dissimilar things.  The Volto, or turn, comes in the sestet. It is a moment when the poem changes direction.

The English Sonnet  The English sonnet (also called the Shakespearean sonnet after its foremost practitioner) comprises three quatrains and a final couplet,  rhyming abab cdcd efef gg.  The turn- The final couple should provide a ‘turn’. Or a moment when the poem changes direction.

The Italian Sonnet Quatrain 1 A B B A Quatrain 2 A B B A Sestet C D C D C D

Italian Sonnet The New Colossus Related Poem Content Details BY EMMA LAZARUSEMMA LAZARUS Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, A With conquering limbs astride from land to land; B Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand B A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame A Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name A Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand B Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command B The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. A “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she C With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, D Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, C The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. D Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, C I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” D

English Sonnet Quatrain 1 a b Quatrain 2 c d Quatrain 3 e f Coupletg

The Turn  Death of a Sonnet Writer He turned the fourteenth glass and said, “Begin.” A and I had fourteen minutes left to live; B and I had fourteen unrepented sins, A and fourteen people whom I would forgive, B and fourteen unread books upon my shelf, C and fourteen loves I knew I’d loved in vain, D and fourteen dreams I’d kept within myself C (the fourteen I’d most wanted to explain.) D But fourteen minutes quickly passed away. E I filled my pen with fourteen drops of ink- F the fourteenth glass had offered one delay; E and fourteen final grains retained the brink. F This sonnet flowed like fourteen final breaths- G the fourteenth line, the fourteenth grain, then death G