FRONT
Shannon
Alex Y.
Spencer
Adrian
Livija
Michael
Julia
Chad
John
Luis
Sam
Andrea
Duncan
Thomas
D.
Caleb
Chris
Ethan
Joe
Thomas
B.
Katie
Will M-M
Keegan
Alex F.
Will M.
x
x
x
Will G.
Jacob
Sadie
Poetry – Introduction to the sonnet
Don’t put the emphasis on
the wrong syllable

Understanding accent


Explanation of meter
What is the meter of your last name?


Think:
How would you pronounce it clearly to someone
who is learning it from the first time?
Using meter
Sonnet 18
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 all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
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.
Sample sonnet





a lyric poem
consisting of fourteen
lines
written in iambic
pentameter
with a definite rhyme
scheme
and a definite thought
structure
A sonnet is…

A lyric poem deals
with emotions, feelings

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 /.
1




2
3
4
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
5

Petrarchan (Italian) rime scheme:
abba, abba, cd, cd, cd
abba, abba, cde, cde

Shakespearean (English, or Elizabethan) rime
scheme:
abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Rhyme scheme
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 all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
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.
A
B
A
B
C
d
C
D
E
F
E
F
G
G
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18

Octave/ sestet



The octave, eight lines, presents a situation or idea.
The sestet (sextet), six lines, responds, to the situation
or idea in the octave.
Quatrain, quatrain, quatrain, couplet

Each quatrain, four lines, describes and idea or
situation which leads to a conclusion or response in
the couplet, two lines.
Thought structure
Sonnet 18
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 all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
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.
The octave
describes the
ways in which
the summer’s
day is inferior
to the
beloved.
The sestet
describes the
ways in which
the beloved is
superior to
the summer’s
day.
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone between my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Sonnet 29
The diction
of the
octave
implies the
speaker’s
self-pity
and
depression.
The
sestet’s
diction, in
conrast, is
joyful.
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.
Rude or reality?
Holy Sonnet 10




Original version of Holy Sonnet 10
Different punctuation
No semi colon, and no capital D
This portrays death as nothing more than a
pause, a comma


Nothing more than a breath
Not a grand, dramatic event to be shouted
about with capital letters
What’s in a comma?




Does the speaker truly have the confidence that is
conveyed, or is he convincing himself that he is not
afraid of death?
If you have to pick out the one most effective
argument in the poem , which one would it be?
Does the comparison between death and sleep make
sense outside of a theological context? Is the speaker
justified in thinking that death will bring pleasure?
Do you think it’s truly possible to welcome the
experience of death in the way that the poem seems
to suggest? Or, is everyone afraid of death, and
some people just pretend not to be?
Study questions