Lima
AP LIT & COMP.
 Sonnet
• Popular classical form that’s compelled poets for
centuries
• From the Italian “sonetto”, which means “a little
sound or song”
 14
line poem
 Written in iambic pentameter
• Meter- the patterning of syllables in a line of poetry
(stressed to unstressed and vice versa)
 2 syllables = a foot
 A foot that consists of an unstressed stressed syllable = an iamb
 Ex.(da DUM) *SYMBOLS
• Iambic Pentameter– a line of poetry that contains 5
iambs
 So a line of poetry written in pentameter has 5 feet, or 5 sets
of stressed and unstressed syllables.
 Ex. If you would put the key inside the lock
 If YOU would PUT the KEY inSIDE the LOCK (da DUM da DUM da DUM
da DUM da DUM)
 Set
rhyme schemes
• Several to choose from
 Usually
written in iambic pentameter
• Meter--
 Tightly
structured thematic organization
 First
and most common form
 Named after the Italian poet, Petrarch
 Introduced to England in the
early 16th century by
Sir Thomas Wyatt
 Structure:
• Divided into 2 stanzas
 The Octave– the first 8 lines
 Poet presents an argument, observation, question or some other
answerable charge
 Turn/Volta- lines 8-9
 Shift in direction of the foregoing argument/narrative
 Sestet– the final 5/6 lines
 Vehicle for counterargument, clarification or whatever is demanded by
the octave
• Tightly woven rhyme scheme
 Abba, abba, cdecde/cdcdcd
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or His own gifts. Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."
Identify:
Octave- what is the
answerable charge?
Volta- where is the shift?
Sestet- what is the
answer/counterargument?
*thematic parts
 Style–
lots of elevated figurative language
 Theme– usually idealized love
 Structure
• 3 quatrains
• 1 couplet
 Usually a conclusion, amplification or refutation of the first 3
stanzas
 Usually results in a epiphanic quality to the poem
 Structure,
continued
• OCTAVE
 1st 2 quatrains (8 lines)– one thematic part
 After this there is the volta (change of mood/thematic direction)
 NOT as important
• SESTET
 1 quatrain, 1 couplet
Sonnet 130
Identify:
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Octave- what is
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
the answerable
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
charge?
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
Volta- where is the
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
shift?
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
Sestet- what is the
And in some perfumes is there more delight
answer/counterThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
argument?
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
*thematic parts
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.
 Named
after poet, Edmund Spenser
 Emerged from Spenser’s romantic epic poem, The
Faeire Queene
 Differ from Shakespearean sonnets mainly in
rhyme scheme
• Abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee
 Also
deemphasizes the importance of the couplet
by including two internal couplets, or “couplet
links” prior to the final couplet
• So, the quatrains are “interlocked”

Sonnet 75 from the Amoretti
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Identify:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
Octave- what is the
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. answerable charge?
Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay
A mortal thing so to immortalize,
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eek my name be wiped out likewise.
Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name.
Volta- where is the shift?
Sestet- what is the
answer/counterargument?
Couplet Links?
*thematic parts
Where when as Death shall all the world subdue,
Out love shall live, and later life renew.
 Type
of sonnet grouping
 A series of linked poems dealing with a
unified subjects
• Shakespearean sonnets
• Elizabeth Barret Browning’s Sonnets from the
Portuguese