JABBERWOCKY
by Lewis Carroll
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
‘And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
SONNET 18
by William Shakespeare
1
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
2
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
3
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
5
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
7
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
9
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
11 Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
12 When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
13 So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
14 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
SONNETS
(from sonetto, meaning “little sound or song”)
TRADITIONAL VERSE
There are many types of
traditional verse. Each type is
known for a specific stanza
length, rhyme scheme, and
rhythm. Here are a few you
may have heard of:
 Chain Rhyme
 Limerick
 Ballad
 Haiku
 Sonnet
 Ode
ABOUT STANZAS
 A stanza consists of a grouping of two or more lines, set off by a space, that
usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme. The stanza in poetry is synonymous with
the paragraph that is seen in prose, related thoughts are grouped into units.
 In traditional English-language poems, stanzas can be identified and grouped
together because they share a rhyme scheme or a fixed number of lines (as in couplet,
tercet, quatrain, cinquain, sestet). In much modern poetry, stanzas may be arbitrarily
presented on the printed page because of publishing conventions that employ such
features as white space or punctuation.
W H A T T Y P E O F S TA N Z A I S I T ?
1.
Look for the space in between line groupings. In poetry, often the blank space
surrounding a stanza is as important as the groupings themselves when figuring out organization.
2.
3.
Identify how many lines are in each stanza so you know what type of stanza it is.
2 lines
Couplet
5 lines
Cinquain
3 lines
Tercet
6 lines
Sestet
4 lines
Quatrain
8 lines
Octet or Octave
Figure out the rhyme scheme.
IDENTIFYING RHYME SCHEME
When identifying the rhyme scheme of a poem, readers and writers
around the world have agreed on a simple system. Use the Alphabet!
Little Miss Muffet
sat on a tuffet
eating her curds and whey.
When along came a Spider
and sat down beside her
and scared Miss Muffet away.
A
A
B
C
C
B
WHO WAS PETRARCH?
 14th century Italian poet Francisco Petrarca
 Head over heels in love with an idealized woman named Laura De
Noves, whom he had never actually had a conversation
 Wrote 366 sonnets to her
 Key idea: the lover’s love for a beautiful, yet unattainable woman is not
returned and he (the lover) suffers as if from a bad flu (freezes and burns)
 Frequent metaphor: love in terms of religion
PETRARCHAN SONNET FORM
 14 lines; each in iambic pentameter
 Lines are divided into two stanzas
 The first stanza is an octave (eight lines) in which a problem, observation,
question, or some other answerable charge is presented
 The second stanza is a sestet (six lines) in which there is a turn, or volta, that
marks a shift in the direction of the foregoing argument or narrative, turning the
sestet into the vehicle for the counterargument, clarification, or whatever answer the
octave demands
 Rhyme Scheme: abba abba cdecde or cdcdcd
GLI OCCHI DI CH' IO
PARLAI
by Petrarch
Those eyes, 'neath which my passionate rapture rose,
The arms, hands, feet, the beauty that erewhile
Could my own soul from its own self beguile,
And in a separate world of dreams enclose,
The hair's bright tresses, full of golden glows,
And the soft lightning of the angelic smile
That changed this earth to some celestial isle,
Are now but dust, poor dust, that nothing knows.
And yet I live! Myself I grieve and scorn,
Left dark without the light I loved in vain,
Adrift in tempest on a bark forlorn;
Dead is the source of all my amorous strain,
Dry is the channel of my thoughts outworn,
And my sad harp can sound but notes of pain.
SHAKESPEARI AN SONNET FORM
 Generally thought to be the easier of the two to write.
 14 lines, 10 syllables per line (iambic pentameter)
 Lines divided in to four stanzas
 The first three stanzas are four lines each
 The final stanza is a rhyming couplet, often called a heroic couplet
 The couplet plays a pivotal role, usually arriving in the form of a conclusion,
amplification, or even refutation of the previous three stanzas, often creating an
epiphanic quality to the end
 Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
SONNET 130
by Shakespeare
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.
SONNET VOCABULARY
 Iamb – a two syllable measure, unstressed followed by stressed
 Pentameter – a line consisting of five measures
 Volta – a turn or change in theme or tone
 Heroic couplet – a rhyming couplet
 Conceit - an extended metaphoric comparison that establishes parallels
between two seemingly dissimilar things or situations. Petrarch established
the practice of including conceits in sonnets by using elaborate
comparisons to praise his lady's beauty and portray his own suffering