1. Emotional lyric poetry: Across cultures & through the ages
The Sonnet
Emotional lyric poetry:
Across cultures &
through the ages

2. Sonnet Basics 14-line lyric poem Usually iambic pentameter (remember?)
Lyric poetry – does not tell a story; expresses personal thoughts or emotions; from Greek “lyrikos” – short poem sung to accompaniment of a lyre
Usually iambic pentameter (remember?)
Formal rhyme scheme

3. Sonnet Origins Introduced into England nearly 500 years ago
Originated in Italy in 13th c.
“sonnet” – Italian for “little song”
Used to express intense emotion, particularly idealized love
Renaissance hits England – interest in Italian literature
Poet Sir Thomas Wyatt 1st uses to express love for Queen Anne Boleyn

4. 3 Types Petrarchan – mostly devoted to Laura The Italian sonnet form
Francesco Petrarch’s “Canzonieri” – poetry collection including 317 sonnets; established sonnet as major poetic form in Europe

5. Petrarchan cont’d.
Octave (?) – abbaabba ; presents idea, argument, or problem
Sestet (?) – cdcdcd or cdecde; follows “volta” (?); illustration, variance, response, reaction, conclusion, or solution

6. 3 Types Shakespearean OR English sonnet
Shakespeare perfected and most notable sonnet poet in England – 154 sonnets
Written to at least 3 people:
A young man urged to marry & have children
A “dark lady” unlike ideal beautiful woman of the time
A rival poet

7. Shakespearean cont’d.
Subjects/themes in addition to love: time, change, beauty, death, a woman’s coldness, suffering of the poet-lover, and immortality of poetry
Genius w/sensory images & figurative language

8. Shakespearean cont’d.
3 quatrains – abab cdcd efef; present 3 parallel images OR 3 points in an argument
Couplet – gg; ties images together or interprets their significance OR drives home conclusion

9. 3 Types Spenserian Named after English poet Edmund Spenser
Wrote “Amoretti” – collection of sonnets or “sonnet sequence”
3 quatrains - interlocking rhyme scheme:
abab bcbc cdcd
Couplet - ee