Sonnets

Poetry Vocabulary Stanza: a group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit (it looks like a paragraph) Meter: regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry Couplet: two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme Volta: the shift in thought—from question to answer, or problem to solution (usually contains the words “but” or “yet”)

Poetry Vocabulary Continued Quatrain: a stanza that has 4 lines Octave: a stanza that has 8 lines Sestet: a stanza that has 6 lines Iambic pentameter: line of poetry that contains 10 syllables, alternating in an unstressed/stressed pattern

What is a sonnet? Sonnets are poems that meet the following requirements: 14 lines long Written in iambic pentameter (most of the time) Follow a set rhyme scheme Contains a “shift” (Volta) located at a certain point of the poem

There are 3 types of sonnets: Petrarchan (also known as Italian): Named after the Italian poet, Francesco Petrarch Shakespearean: Named after William Shakespeare Spenserian: Named after Edmund Spenser

Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet Made up of an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines) The octave rhyme scheme: abbaabba The sestet rhyme scheme: cdecde, cdcdcd or cdedce The shift comes in between the octave and the sestet Petrarchan (Italian) A B A Octave (8 lines) A Volta (shift) C D E C Sestet (6 lines)

Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnets Continued… The octave typically: Presents a narrative States a proposition Or raises a question The sestet: drives home the narrative by making an abstract comment applies the proposition or solves the problem.

Shakespearean Sonnets Made up of 3 quatrains (4 lines) and one couplet (2 lines) The quatrain rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef The couplet rhyme scheme: gg The shift comes either after 8 lines or 10 lines Shakespearean A B C D C 3 quatrains E F The Volta (shift) F G Rhyming G Couplet

Shakespearean Sonnets Continued… Each quatrain develops a specific idea that is still related to the other quatrains The Shakespearean sonnet has the easiest rhyme scheme

Spenserian Sonnet Similar to the Shakespearean sonnet because it has 3 quatrains (4 lines) and 1 couplet (2 lines), but it complicates the rhyme scheme by linking the quatrains Quatrain rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd Couplet rhyme scheme: ee This type of sonnet is very rare among modern poets

More poetry terms (pg. 1019) Narrative poem and lyric poem can be found by looking up “poetry” Symbolism is the same thing as symbol Denotation means the dictionary definition of a word We will go over fixed-form and free-form poems later