AN INTRODUCTION TO
SONNETS
English IV – Dennis
What is a sonnet?
• Sonnets are poems that meet the following
rules:
1. All sonnets are 14 lines long.
2. Sonnets in English are written in iambic pentameter,
which means that each line has 10 syllables,
alternating in an unstressed/stressed pattern.
3. Sonnets follow a predetermined rhyme scheme; the
rhyme pattern determines if the sonnet is
Petrarchan (Italian), Shakespearean, or Spenserian.
4. All sonnets are characterized by a “turn” located at
a designated point in the sonnet.
History of the Sonnet
The sonnet began in Italy, where the poet
Francesco Petrarch first established it as a
serious form of poetry. Petrarch wrote a large
collection of sonnets addressed to a young
woman named Laura he saw one afternoon at
church. She was not interested, but he didn’t
let that stop him, and proceeded to publish
some 260 sonnets about her—followed by
another hundred or so after her death. Petrarch
is, quite possibly, the first recorded literary
stalker.
In these sonnets, Petrarch used witty plays on
Laura’s name (l’oro=the golden one or the
golden; references to laurel trees, etc.) to both
honor and attack the object of his affection. He
would praise her for her beauty in one sonnet,
then condemn her as an icy monster who
rejects his love in another. Laura was
completely unable to respond to these poems,
as women did not write, and her public persona
was thus basically Petrarch’s to define.
Petrarch also refined a particular
type of sonnet known as the blazon
(blah-zohn). A blazon is a sonnet
that catalogues the features or
traits of its subject, usually a
woman, and describes them using
hyperbole, metaphor, or simile. A
typical example of a blazon is Sir
Philip Sidney’s verse: What tongue can her perfections tell,
In whose each part all pens may dwell?
Note how Sidney lists off the Her hair fine threads of finest gold,
elements of the woman’s face—hair,
forehead, eyebrows, eyelids, and In curled knots man’s thought to hold:
finally, eyes. But that her forehead says, “In me
A whiter beauty you may see”;
This is the source of the “your eyes
are like deep pools I could dive into, Whiter indeed, more white than snow,
etc.” school of poetry, which, while
occasionally flattering, should be Which on cold winter’s face doth grow.
noted as being problematic as well, That doth present those even brows
as it reduces the subject to nothing
more than a collection of good- Whose equal line their angles bows,
looking body parts. This
objectification of the subject, usually Like to the moon when after change
a woman, has in turn contributed to Her horned head abroad doth range;
the impossible standards of beauty
for women today, as well as the And arches be to heavenly lids,
problem of seeing women only as
objects of sexual desire. Whose wink each bold attempt forbids.
For the black stars those spheres contain,
The matchless pair, even praise doth stain.
Sir Philip Sidney
Some poets would go on to play with this idea
and take it a ridiculous extreme, while others
used it as source for satire:
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXXX
Giuseppi Archimboldo’s
Summer
The major sonnet forms:
Petrarchan (Italian) Shakespearean
A A
B B
B A
A Octave (8 lines) B
A C
B D
B C 3 quatrains
A The TURN D
E
C
F The
D TURN
E E
C Sestet (6 lines) F
D G Rhyming
E G Couplet
Spenserian Sonnet
• Spenserian sonnet
• Named for Sir Edmund
Spenser
• Slight variation on English
sonnet
• Continues one rhyme
from each couplet
• ABAB
• BCBC
• CDCD
• EE
The major sonnet forms:
Spenserian
A
B
A
B
B
C
B
C 3 quatrains
C
D
C The Turn
C
D
E
E Rhyming
Couplet
The major sonnet forms:
Spenserian
A
B
A Octave (8 lines)
B
B
C
B
C
The TURN
C
D
C Sestet (6 lines)
D
E
E
The Turn of the Sonnet
A sonnet’s turn is the point in
“Come Sleep, O Sleep!”
the sonnet where the poet
changes perspective or
alters his/her approach to Come, Sleep! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace,
The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe,
description. This often The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,
results in a sonnet Th' indifferent judge between the high and low;
following a “position- With shield of proof shield me from out the press
contrasting position” type Of those fierce darts Despair at me doth throw!
O make in me those civil wars to cease! -
of structure, or I will good tribute pay if thou do so.
occasionally a “change of Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed,
heart” in the poet at the A chamber deaf of noise and blind of light,
end of the verse. Look at A rosy garland, and a weary head;
And if these things, as being thine in right,
this sonnet as an example: Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me,
Livelier than elsewhere, Stella's image see.
Notice that the poem’s turn is
a change from discussing
what Sleep itself is to what
the poet will offer Sleep as
tribute if Sleep comes to
him.
Nothing is ever easy.
Sonnet 29
Note that at times the When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
turn does NOT occur in I all alone beweep my outcast state
the traditional spot. And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Instead of occurring at Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
the normal line 12-13 in Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
this sonnet by Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Shakespeare, the turn Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
instead occurs between Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
lines 8-9—where you’d From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
normally find the turn for For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
an Italian sonnet.
Iambic pentameter consists
of
• five measures, units, or meters, of
• iambs
An iamb is a metrical foot
consisting of
an unaccented syllable U
followed by an accented syllable /.
U /
a gain
U / U /
im mor tal ize
Iambic pentameter
1 2 3 4 5
U / U / U / U / U /
One day I wrote her name u pon the strand,
U / U / U / U/U /
But came the waves and wash ed it a way:
U / U / U / U / U /
A gain I wrote it with a sec ond hand,
U / U / U / U / U /
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey
Edmund Spenser, Amoretti, Sonnet 75
Shakespeare
• William Shakespeare
• 1564-1616
• Published in 1609
• 154 Sonnets – not sure when
they were composed.
• Sonnets a profound meditation
on the nature of love, sexual passion,
procreation, death, and time
