Shakespeare’s Sonnets

What is a sonnet? The word itself is derived from the Italian word meaning sonetto, meaning the word, “little sound; song” 14 line lyric poem that conforms to strict patterns of rhythm and rhyme

Forms of a Sonnet Italian Petrarchan Sonnet 8-line section called the octave 6-line section called sestet Question- Answer Problem- Solution Theme- Comment

Italian Sonnet: Petrarchan The 9th line is known as the volta, or the transition This is the beginning of the sestet

Shakespearean Sonnet Fixed requirement of 14 iambic pentameter lines Three quatrains and a couplet Quatrain- a verse or stanza of four lines, when used in iambic pentameter it has a rhyme scheme of abab Couplet- A pair of rhyming verse lines

Iambic Pentameter Review Each line has five alternating stressed syllables with five unstressed syllables Natural vernacular 10 syllables per line in a sonnet

Rhyme Scheme We Don’t Know Why The twinkling of stars on a balmy night, The gabble of geese as they take flight, A passionate look in your lover’s eye, The graceful ballet of a butterfly. Living on the edge, in a committed way, Facing all challenges day by day, Your life on the line—to do, not just try, Life is exciting—a natural high. By Karl and Joanna Fuchs

abab form Mine eye hath played the painter and hath stelled, Thy beauty's form in table of my heart, My body is the frame wherein 'tis held, And perspective it is best painter's art.

Shakespearean Sonnet Rhyme Scheme b c d e f g As a decrepit father takes delight, To see his active child do deeds of youth, So I, made lame by Fortune's dearest spite Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth. For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit, Or any of these all, or all, or more Entitled in thy parts, do crowned sit, I make my love engrafted to this store: So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised, Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give, That I in thy abundance am sufficed, And by a part of all thy glory live: Look what is best, that best I wish in thee, This wish I have, then ten times happy me.

First two quatrains The question, problem or theme of the sonnet They that have power to hurt, and will do none, That do not do the thing, they most do show, Who moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow: They rightly do inherit heaven's graces, And husband nature's riches from expense, Tibey are the lords and owners of their faces, Others, but stewards of their excellence:

The ‘Turn’ First line of the third quatrain The speaker is turning from one phrase to another

The Third Quatrain The first line (#9) is the turn By the end of the third quatrain the initial comparison and question are no longer used May hint at the moral

The Couplet The finale of the story Often a form of an epigram Final words of both lines rhyme

Couplet Examples Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art, They draw but what they see, know not the heart.

Identifying couplet sections: They that have power to hurt, and will do none, That do not do the thing, they most do show, Who moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow: They rightly do inherit heaven's graces, And husband nature's riches from expense, Tibey are the lords and owners of their faces, Others, but stewards of their excellence: The summer's flower is to the summer sweet, Though to it self, it only live and die, But if that flower with base infection meet, The basest weed outbraves his dignity: For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds, Lilies that fester, smell far worse than weeds

Themes Love, Death, Friendship or the passage of time Passage of time: growing older, becoming more mature