1. Meter and Shakespeare’s sonnets
English 12

2. What is meter? The rhythmical pattern of a poem
The pattern is determined by the combination of the stressed and unstressed syllables in the line
The term applied to a group of syllables is “feet”

3. Syllables What is a syllable?
The basic component of words
There are three syllables (separate sounds) in the word syllable (syl la ble)
“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks”
How many syllables are there in that quotation?

4. How many feet do you have?
Four of the major feet used in poetry
Iamb eˇ é
Unstressed stressed
Trochee é eˇ
Stressed unstressed
Anapest eˇeˇ é
Unstressed unstressed stressed
Dactyl é eˇeˇ
Stressed unstressed unstressed

5. How many feet per line?
We name the line according to the number of feet per line
Dimeter = 2 feet per line
Trimeter = 3 feet per line
Tetrameter = 4 feet per line
Pentameter = 5 feet per line

6. ˘ ́ ˘ ́ ˘ ́ ˘ ́ ˘ ́ Iambic pentameter An Iamb is “dee Dum”
Penta is from the Greek word for five
Meter is the pattern of syllables
So there are five iambs per line
(iambic penta meter)
“Within his bending sickle’s compass come:”
˘ ́ ˘ ́ ˘ ́ ˘ ́ ˘ ́

7. Heartbeat Quite simply, it sounds like this:
Dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM
It consists of a line of five iambic feet, ten syllables with five unstressed and five stressed syllables
It is the first and last sound we ever hear, it is the rhythm of the human heart

8. Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter is the rhythm and meter in which poets and playwrights wrote in Elizabethan England. It is the meter that Shakespeare used.

9. Iambic Pentameter
It is percussive and attractive to the hear and has an effect on the listener’s central nervous system.
An example of pentameter from Shakespeare:
“but SOFT what LIGHT through YONder WINdow BREAKS”

10. abab cdcd efef gg. Rhyme scheme
Rhyme scheme is the pattern of words that rhyme
The Shakespearean Sonnet has three quatrains followed by a couplet, the rhyme scheme being:
abab cdcd efef gg.

11. William Shakespeare
Shakespeare didn’t just copy the Italian sonnets; he devised his own variations.

12. Quatrain, Sestet, and Couplet
Quatrain = a four line stanza.
Sestet = a six-line stanza.
Couplet = two lines of poetry.
The following sonnet is divided into three quatrains and a couplet.
The rhyme scheme is marked as well.

13. Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds (a) Admit impediments. Love is not love (b) Which alters when it alteration finds, (a) Or bends with the remover to remove: (b) O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, (c) That looks on tempests and is never shaken; (d)
It is the star to every wandering bark, (c) Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.(d)
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks (e) Within his bending sickle's compass come; (f) Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, (e)
But bears it out even to the edge of doom (f) If this be error and upon me proved, (g) I never writ, nor no man ever loved (g)

14. What does it mean?
Let me not declare any reasons why two True-minded people should not be married. Love is not love Which changes when it finds a change in circumstances, Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful: Oh no! it is a lighthouse That sees storms but it never shaken; Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship, Whose value can’t be calculated, although its altitude can be. Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty Comes within the compass of his sickle. Love does not alter with hours and weeks, But, rather, it endures until the last day of life. If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved.

15. Stanza Patterns 2 lines = couplet 4 lines = quatrain 6 lines = sestet
8 lines = octave

16. The Sonnet
English 12

17. The Sonnet A 14 line lyric poem with a single theme
Each line in a sonnet is usually in Iambic pentameter – five groups of two syllables, each with the accent on the second syllable.
The “turn” of a sonnet is where it shifts from the problem to the solution
And look upon myself and curse my fate

18. Petrarchan SOnnet On His Being Arrived to the Age of Twenty-three
By John Milton
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! My hasting days fly on with full career, But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th. Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, That I to manhood am arrived so near, And inward ripeness doth much less appear, That some more timely-happy spirits indu’th. Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, It shall be still in strictest measure even To that same lot, however mean or high, Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven, All is, if I have grace to use it so, As ever in my great Task-master’s eye
Eigth line (octave) and six line (sestet)
Ryme scheme: abba abba cde cde
Often poses a problem in the octave and solution in the sestet

19. Spenserian SOnnet Happy ye leaves! Whenas those lily hand
Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands,      which hold my life in their dead doing might      shall handle you and hold in loves soft bands,      lyke captives trembling at the victors sight. And happy lines, on which with starry light,      those lamping eyes will deigne sometimes to look      and reade the sorrowes of my dying spright,      written with teares in harts close bleeding book. And happy rymes bath'd in the sacred brooke      of Helicon whence she derived is,      when ye behold that Angels blessed looke,      my soules long lacked foode, my heavens blis. Leaves, lines, and rymes, seeke her to please alone,      whom if ye please, I care for other none.
Eigth line (octave) and six line (sestet)
Ryme scheme: abab bcbc cdcdee

20. Shakespearean or english SOnnet
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand'ring bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
Three quatrains and a rhyming couplet
Ryme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
Often the quatrains pose a problem that is resolved in the couplet

21. Sonnet Sequence A group of sonnets linked by a subject matter of theme
They follow certain conventions such as:
They may all be addressed to inanimate objects
They may all desire something from the one addressed in the sonnet
They may all reflect the speaker’s feelings.

22. Sonnet 35: Edmund Spencer
My hungry eyes, through greedy covetize, Still to behold the object of theyr payne: With no contentment can themselves suffize, But having pine, and having not complayne.
For lacking it, they cannot lyfe sustayne, And seeing it, they gaze on it the more: In theyr amazement lyke Narcissus vayne Whose eyes him starv'd: so plenty makes me pore.
Yet are myne eyes so filled with the store Of that fayre sight, that nothing else they brooke: But loath the things which they did like before, And can no more endure on them to looke.
All this worlds glory seemeth vayne to me, And all theyr shewes but shadowes saving she.
Structure?