2. Sonnets are a form of poetry The word sonnet means “little song.”

3. Each sonnet has 14 lines. Each sonnet has a rhyme scheme. Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter.

4. Love Death/Mortality Change Religious Devotion Change Self-Deprecation

5. Originated in Italy during the Italian Renaissance. A man name Francis Petrarch (or Francesco Petrarca) is credited with the development of the sonnet. Dante is also credited with writing Italian Sonnets. Sonnets with a particular structure are called Italian or Petrarchan Sonnets.

6. Author Thomas Wyatt traveled to Spain and Italy where he was exposed to the Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet. Wyatt began writing sonnets. His focus was on rhyme. Wyatt’s friend Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, also began writing sonnets. His focus was on structure. Surrey is credited with the development of the English Sonnet. The English sonnet is also known as the Elizabethan Sonnet, or more commonly, the Shakespearian Sonnet.

7. Meter - a recurring pattern of stressed (accented, or long) and unstressed (unaccented, or short) syllables in lines of a set length. Foot – a set of syllables EXAMPLE: Shall I | com PARE | thee TO | a SUM | mer’s DAY?

8. NameStress# of Syllables Iamb (Iambic)Unstressed + Stressed2 Syllables Trochee (Trochaic)Stressed + Unstressed2 Syllables Spondee (Spondaic)Stressed + Stressed2 Syllables Anapest (Anapestic)Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed3 Syllables Dactyl (Dactylic)Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed3 Syllables PyrrhicUnstressed + Unstressed2 Syllables

9. NameNumber of Feet per Line MonometerOne Foot DimeterTwo Feet TrimeterThree Feet TetrameterFour Feet PentameterFive Feet HexameterSix Feet HeptameterSeven Feet OctameterEight Feet

10. The meter is determined by the type of foot and the number of feet per line. Example 1 Four Anapestic feet = anapestic tetrameter da da DUM | da da DUM | da da DUM | da da DUM The As SYR|ian came DOWN | like the WOLF | on the FOLD And his CO|horts were GLEAM|ing in PUR|ple and GOLD And the SHEEN | of their SPEARS | was like STARS | on the SEA (from “The Destruction of Sennacherib” by George Gordon Lord Byron)

11. Example 2 Four Trochaic feet = Trochaic tetrameter DUM da | DUM da | DUM da | DUM da TYger | TYger | BURNning | BRIGHT IN the | FORests | OF the | NIGHT (from “The Tyger” by William Blake)

12. Example 3 Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. Five Iambic feet = Iambic Pentameter Da DUM | Da DUM | Da DUM |Da DUM |Da DUM When I | con SID|er HOW | my LIFE | is SPENT Ere HALF | my DAYS | is THIS | dark WORLD |and WIDE (from “On His Blindness” by John Milton)

13. 2 Lines = Couplet 4 Lines = Quatrain 6 Lines = Sestet 8 Lines = Octave

14. Italian/Petrarchan Sonnets Quatrain4 Sestet6 ----------------- TOTAL14 lines Quatrain4 Couplet2 ----------------- TOTAL14 lines English/Shakespearian Sonnets & Spenserian Sonnets

15. Rhyme scheme simply refers to the pattern of rhyme used in a poem. Letters are used to represent the rhymes. Italian/Petrarchan sonnets, English/Shakespearian sonnets, and Spenserian sonnets all use different rhyme schemes.

16. What time of year thou mayst in me beholdA When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hangB Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, A Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. B

17. Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet A B B A(quatrain) C D C D C D(sestet) English/Shakespearian Sonnet A B A B(quatrain) C D C D(quatrain) E F E F(quatrain) G G(couplet) Spenserian Sonnet A B A B(quatrain) B C B C(quatrain) C D C D(quatrain) E E(couplet)

18. Volta Italian/Petrarchan sonnets contain a change in thought or a turn which accompanies the change in rhyme scheme. This called the volta. Enjambment Not only in sonnets, but in a variety of poetry, a thought is carried from one line into the next. This is called enjambment. Blank Verse When no rhyme scheme is present.