SONNETS

SONNET: Italian for "little song" – originally used to convey deep and intense amorous feelings, often expressed idealistically in the typical courtly love of the Middle Ages

LENGTH: 14 LINES Blank Verse

Blank Verse - Iambic Pentameter Iamb – "foot" – unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable Penta – 5 10 syllables per line, alternating unstressed and stressed

Let me/ not to/ the mar/riage of/ true minds Admit/ imped/iments/. Love is/ not love Which al/ters when/ it al/terna/tion finds Or bends/ with the/ remov/er to/ remove

Shakespearean Sonnet Sonnets add a specific rhyme scheme to Blank Verse Three Quatrains (groups of 4 lines) and a rhyming Couplet

1St Quatrain – introduces the situation (abab) My heart I gave thee not to do it pain, But to preserve it was to thee taken; I served thee not to be forsaken, But that I should be rewarded again.

2nd Quatrain – explores the situation (cdcd) I was content thy servant to remain, But not to be payed under this fashion. Now since in thee is none other reason, Displease thee not if that I do refrain,

3rd Quatrain – often has a shift in thought (efef) Unsatiate of my woe and thy desire. Assured be craft to excuse thy fault. But since it please thee to feign a default Farewell I say, parting from the fire.

Couplet – resolves the situation – think of the couplet as the "punch line" that gives meaning to the whole (gg) For he that believeth, bearing in hand, Plougheth in water and soweth in the sand.

Petrarchan Sonnet Octave – first 8 lines, usually abbaabba, typically establishes the speaker's situation Sestet – last 6 lines, cdcdcd or cdecde, draws conclusion or expresses a reaction to the situation

Spenserian Sonnet Variation of the English, or Shakespearean, Sonnet  Spenserian sonnet has an interlocking rhyme scheme linking the quatrains (abab bcbc cdcd ee) Amoretti (1595) – "intimate little tokens of love” 75 sonnets arranged in a narrative progression that simulates the ritual and emotions of a courtship – written during the courtship of his second wife, thought to be in part autobiographical Spenserian Sonnet