Intro to Shakespeare Week 2

About sonnet Form of poetry, has 14 lines with a specific rhyme scheme Topic of sonnets written in Shakespeare's time is love--or a theme related to love usually written as part of a series, with each sonnet a sequel to the previous one, although many sonnets could stand alone as separate poems.

Shakespearean Sonnets William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, among which he addresses Sonnets 1 through 126 to an unidentified young man with outstanding physical and intellectual attributes . In Sonnets 127 through 154, Shakespeare devotes most of his attention to addressing a mysterious "dark lady" .

The rhyming pattern The Shakespearean sonnet (also called the English sonnet) has three four-line stanzas (quatrains) and a two-line unit called a couplet. A couplet is always indented; both lines rhyme at the end. ABAB CDCD EFEF GG The meter of Shakespeare's sonnets is iambic pentameter (except in Sonnet 145). The rhyming lines in each stanza are the first and third and the second and fourth. In the couplet ending the poem, both lines rhyme. All of Shakespeare's sonnets follow the same rhyming pattern

Iambic Pentameter Shakespeare wrote his sonnets (and many of the lines in his plays) in iambic pentameter, a technical term for a poetry pattern in which each line has 10 syllables, beginning with an unstressed syllable and a stressed syllable, followed by another pair of unstressed and stressed syllables, and so on--until there are five pairs of syllables (or ten syllables in all) . But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? 

Sonnet 18 Quatrain 1 (four-line stanza) A Shall I compare thee to a summer’s Day? B   Thou art more lovely and more temper ATE : A   Rough winds do shake the darling buds of MAY, B   And summer's lease hath all too short a DATE :

Sonnet 18 Quatrain 2 (four-line stanza) C   Sometime too hot the eye of heaven SHINES, D   And often is his gold complexion DIMM'D; C  And every fair from fair sometime de CLINES, D   By chance or nature's changing course un TRIMM'D;

Sonnet 18 Quatrain 3 (four-line stanza) E    But thy eternal summer shall not FADE , F    Nor lose possession of that fair thou OWEST , E    Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his SHADE , F    When in eternal lines to time thou GROWEST ;

Sonnet 18 Couplet (two rhyming lines) G    So long as men can breathe ,or eyes can SEE; G    So long lives this, and this gives life to THEE .

Sonnet 18 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; 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 ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wand’ rest 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.

The Sonnet -Why was the sonnet popular? Why does it work so well? Was it just tradition? -Most pop songs follow a similar format (V/C/V/C/B/C/C). Format is a tool. -It contains all “parts” in just 14 lines– expositing, elaborating, twisting, resolving. -It contains cues to organize each section.

Verse: Iambic Pentameter -Each line consists of “feet” (heel + toes) = Ten syllables per line De-dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum -Here’s a line with stresses where you’d expected to find them:

Verse: Iambic Pentameter “Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come” (Hamlet, III 4 141) -If every line had this pattern, the play would get monotonous, so this is just a framework. -Shakespeare varies from it in subtle ways to achieve certain effects. -This irregular stress is called modulation. Ex.:

Verse: Iambic Pentameter [King Hamlet’s Ghost:] “I am thy father’s spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confin’d to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres, Thy knotty and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.

Verse: Iambic Pentameter Another example of modulation, from King Lear: [Lear:] “Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more Never, never, never, never, never.” -Here, Lear speaks a line the stress pattern of which is wholly inverted. What does this emphasize?