Explicating Poetry: 5 Steps
 1- Examine the situation in the poem
 2- Examine the structure in the poem
 3- Examine the language in the poem
 4- Examine the musical devices in the poem
 5- Write about your conclusions!
William Shakespeare
 c. 1564-1616
 b. Stratford-uponAvon, England
 Wrote during
Renaissance time
period
 Time of metaphysical
and carpe diem
poetry
Shakespearean Sonnets
 1609 Quarto only source of most 152
Shakespearean Sonnets.
 There are 3 categories of poems in this
Quarto:
 1-126 are addressed to The Fair Youth
 127-152 are addressed to The Dark
Mistress
 A Lover’s Complaint a 329 line poem
written in Rhyme Royal (a-b-a-b-b-c-c)
Shakespeare’s Addressees
 The Fair Youth (sonnets 1-126)
 An unnamed young man
 Written to in loving and romantic language
 Some suggest this may be a homosexual love, others
find support that it is platonic, or father-son love
 The Dark Lady (sonnets 127-152)
 Given this name because of she is described as being
dark haired
 The sonnets written about her express infatuation
and are more sexual in nature
Shakespearean Sonnet Form
 Still 14 lines
 Broken into 4 parts
 3 quatrains- 4 line stanza
 1 rhyming couplet- 2 line stanza
 Written in iambic pentameter:
˘ / ˘ /
˘ / ˘ / ˘
/
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Shakespearean Sonnet Form
 Rhyme Scheme:
 Quatrain 1: a b a b [introduces question]
 Quatrain 2: c d c d
[tentative
 Quatrain 3: e f e f
answers]
 Rhyming Couplet: g g
[final answer]
 Volta:
 The turn or transition in line 9 which marks a shift
in focus or thought
Sonnet 18
A
B
A
B
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath too short a date.
C
D
C
D
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course
untrimmed.
Sonnet 18
E
F
E
F
G
G
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 18
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? A
QUESTION
Thou art more lovely and more temperate. B syntax
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A imagery
And summer’s lease hath too short a date. B- near rhyme
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, C syntax
And often is his gold complexion dimmed; D personification-sun
And every fair from fair sometimes declines, C
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed. D
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,E VOLTA- shift in tone
METAPHOR
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest, F
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade E person. - death
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st. F
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, G ANAPHORA
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. G
SONNET 55
Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this pow'rful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these conténts
Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword, nor war’s quick fire, shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.
SONNET 130
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 damask'd, 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 141
 In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who in despite of view is pleased to dote;
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted,
Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone:
But my five wits nor my five senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unsway'd the likeness of a man,
Thy proud hearts slave and vassal wretch to be:
Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
That she that makes me sin awards me pain.
SONNET 38
How can my muse want subject to invent
While thou dost breathe that pour'st into my verse,
Thine own sweet argument, too excellent,
For every vulgar paper to rehearse?
O give thy self the thanks if aught in me,
Worthy perusal stand against thy sight,
For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee,
When thou thy self dost give invention light?
Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth
Than those old nine which rhymers invocate,
And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth
Eternal numbers to outlive long date.
If my slight muse do please these curious days,
The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
 1892-1950
 American writer and feminist
 Lived mostly in NYC during her career as a writer
 Won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
 Arguably the best sonnet writer of her time
Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnets
 Developed by the Italian writer Francesco
Petrarch
 This form of sonnet typically addresses:
 The subject of women
 Often romantic poems
 Often exaggerate the perfection of
women
Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet Form
 Still 14 lines
 Broken into 2 parts
 1 octave—8 line stanza
 1 sestet– 6 line stanza
 Usually written in iambic pentameter:
˘
/
˘
/
˘
/ ˘
/
I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
˘
/
Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet Form
 Rhyme Scheme:
 Octave: a b b a a b b a [introduces
problem/desire]
 Sestet: c d e c d e [comments/provides solution]
OR c d c d c d
Volta:
 The turn or transition in line 9 which marks a shift
in focus or thought
Edna St. Vincent Millay
I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
And keep him there; and let him thence escape
If he be lucky; let him twist, and ape
Flood, fire, and demon --- his adroit designs
Will strain to nothing in the strict confines
Of this sweet order, where, in pious rape,
I hold his essence and amorphous shape,
Till he with Order mingles and combines.
Past are the hours, the years of our duress,
His arrogance, our awful servitude:
I have him. He is nothing more nor less
Than something simple not yet understood;
I shall not even force him to confess;
Or answer. I will only make him good.