Shakespearean versus Petrarchan Sonnet

Sonnet 14 lines Makes a two-part statement question- answer problem – solution theme – comment Volta (or turn) which is a shift in focus or thought occurs

Petrarchan Sonnet Written in two parts: The octave and the sestet Octave (first 8 lines) Sestet (last 6 lines) Volta comes at line 9 Rhyme scheme is abba, abba, cde, cde

Shakespearean Sonnet Written in strict iambic pentameter (10 syllables with the first unstressed and the second stressed for a meter of 5 times) Divided into three quatrains and a couplet (Quatrain is four lines, couplet is two lines) Rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg

OCTAVE SESTET A The spring returns, the spring wind softly blowing B Sprinkles the grass with gleam and glitter of showers, B Powdering pearl and diamond, dripping with flowers, A Dropping wet flowers, dancing the winters going; A The swallow twitters, the groves of midnight are glowing B With nightingale music and madness; the sweet fierce powers B Of love flame up through the earth; the seed-soul towers A And trembles; nature is filled to overflowing… C The spring returns, but there is no returning C Of spring for me. O heart with anguish burning! D She that unlocked all April in a breath E Returns not…And these meadows, blossoms, birds E These lovely gentle girls– words, empty words D As bitter as the black estates of death! OCTAVE SESTET VOLTA

Quatrain Quatrain Quatrain Couplet Turn Turn A B C D E F G Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest, Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. Quatrain Quatrain Turn Quatrain Turn Couplet

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? IAMBIC PENTAMETER Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?