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ELIT 17 Class 19

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+AGENDA Lecture: Sonnets

Style and Format Activity: Scansion

Recitation Sign up sheet Introduction

Twelfth Night

+Shakespeare’s Sonnets

The composition dates of Shakespeare’s sonnets is unknown, though it is likely that he wrote them over a period of several years, beginning in the early 1590s. Some of them were being circulated in manuscript form among his friends as early as 1598. In 1599 two of them—138 and 144—were published in The Passionate Pilgrim, a verse anthology written by several authors. The sonnets as we know them were certainly completed no later than 1609, when they were published by Thomas Thorpe under the title Shake-speares Sonnets. According to Shakespearean scholars, it is likely that Thorpe obtained the manuscript on which he based his publication from someone other than the Shakespeare. Few believe that Shakespeare oversaw the publication of Thorpe’s edition because the text is riddled with errors. Still, Thorpe's 1609 compilation is the source for all modern texts of the sonnets.

+Shakespearean Sonnet ConventionsWith only a few exceptions—Sonnets 99, 126, and 145—Shakespeare's verses follow the established English form of the sonnet. Each is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter, comprising four sections: three quatrains, or groups of four lines, followed by a couplet of two lines. It is essential that a sonnet contain a “turn” or “volta.” Often the first two quatrains explain a problem or ask a question. The last quatrain and the couplet offer a solution to the problem or an answer to the question. Sometimes, particularly in Shakespearean sonnets, this “turn” does not occur until the final couplet, where it is a commentary on the previous twelve lines. It should be noted that some of Shakespeare's final couplets do not fit the conventional strategy of summary. Shakespeare did, however, employ the traditional English sonnet rhyme-scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

+Iambic Pentameter

Meter: Iambic pentameterUnstressed, stressed pattern

Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-DetroitFive feet (10 syllables)

Shall I compare the too a summer’s dayDetroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-DetroitThough art more lovely and more temperateDetroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit

+Sonnet Conventions

14 linesStrict rhyme schemeSpecific structureWe’re going to talk about three specific

typesShakespearean (English)Petrarchan (Italian)Spenserian

+The Spenserian Sonnet

Form: 14 lines: three quatrains followed by a couplet.

Content: It is essential that a sonnet contain a “turn” or “volta.”

Meter: Iambic pentameter Unstressed, stressed pattern

Detroit Five feet (10 syllables) Rhyme scheme:

abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee

Is it | her na | ture or | is it | her will,To be so cruel to an humbled foe?If nature, then she may it mend with skill,If will, then she at will may will forgo.

But if her nature and her will be so,that she will plague the man that loves her most:And take delight t'increase a wretch's woe,Then all her nature's goodly gifts are lost.

And that same glorious beauty's idle boast,Is but a bait such wretches to beguile:As being long in her love's tempest tossed,She means at last to make her piteous spoil.

Of fairest fair let never it be named,That so fair beauty was so foully shamed.

In this example, you can see how Spenser links the idea of each quatrain into a continuous thought, which he reflects in the rhyme scheme. We also find that the final couplet, once again distinguished by elements of rhyme, characteristically presents a different idea from the rest of the sonnet or comments on it in some way.

Sonnet No. 41, from Amoretti

+The Petrarchan Sonnet Form: 14 lines: octave and a sestet Content: The octave forms proposition that

describes problem, asks question, or sets situation. The sestet proposes turn or resolution.

Meter: Iambic pentameter Unstressed, stressed pattern

Detroit Five feet (10 syllables) Rhyme scheme: octave:

abba abba Rhyme scheme for sestet:

Can be arranged in various ways:cdcdcd cdccdccdecde cdcdee

"London, 1802” by William Wordsworth

1. Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:2. England hath need of thee: she is a fen3. Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,4. Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and

bower,5. Have forfeited their ancient English dower6. Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;7. Oh! raise us up, return to us again;8. And give us manners, virtue, freedom,

power.9. Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; 10.Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like

the sea:11.Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,12.So didst thou travel on life's common way,13.In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart14.The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

The Petrarchan Sonnet is divided into two sections by the two differing rhyme groups. In accordance with the principle, a change from one rhyme group to another signifies a change in subject matter. This change occurs at the beginning of L9 in the Italian sonnet and is called the volta,or "turn"; the turn is an essential element of the sonnet form. It is at the volta that the second idea is introduced

+The Shakespearian SonnetForm: 14 lines: three quatrains followed by

a couplet. Content: It is essential that a sonnet

contain a “turn” or “volta.” Meter: Iambic pentameterUnstressed, stressed pattern

Detroit Five feet (10 syllables)Rhyme scheme:

abab, cdcd, efef, gg

+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 fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his

shadeWhen 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 18William Shakespeare

+

__________

Shakespearean Sonnet Form and Structure__________________Iambicpentameter A

B

BA

C

C

D

D

E

E

F

F

GG

Quatrain

Quatrain

Quatrain

Couplet

octave

sestet

Volta

Lines!

14

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 fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shadeWhen 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 Subject

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

The speaker starts by asking whether he should compare his subject to with a summer’s day. Then, instead of considering that further, he gives us a thesis of sorts. The object of his description is more "lovely" and more "temperate" than a summer’s day.

+Lines 3-8

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 dimm’d;

These line focus on a personification of nature, explaining the cycles of life and details of summer.

+Lines 7-8And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

With these lines, the speaker gets even broader in his philosophy, declaring that everything beautiful must eventually fade away and lose its charm, either by chance or by the natural flow of time.

+The Turn: Lines 9-10

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,

Here is a classic example of a "turn." Suddenly (though it was foreshadowed a bit in line 8), the tone and direction of the poem change dramatically: the speaker pronounces that the person he’s speaking to isn’t subject to all of these rules of nature. The speaker argues that, unlike the real summer, his beloved’s summer will never end nor will his/her beauty ever fade.

+Lines 11-14

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.

Shakespeare shatters the fourth wall and successfully predicts that this poem will continue to be read, analyzed, and re-analyzed for all time. In other words, by allowing us to try to give life to "thee" (figuring out who he/she was), the speaker and the poem itself give "thee" life.

+In Groups

Work together on Sonnet 71.

Scan it, name it, and find the figurative language

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Recitation: A Sonnet or Soliloquy 50 points

Each person in class will do one presentation of either a sonnet or soliloquy (speech/monologue), including a written summary—half a page describing the content and the formal elements —and a memorized performance.

Please sign up on the sheet that is being circulated!

+Now You Try: Scan it, name it, and find the figurative language

+Scan it, name it, and find the figurative language

Lines 1 through 4

+Lines 5 through 8

+Lines 9 through 12

+Lines 13 and 14

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+Twelfth Night—an allusion to the night of festivity preceding the Christian celebration of the Epiphany—combines love, confusion, mistaken identities, and joyful discovery.

After the twins Sebastian and Viola survive a shipwreck, neither knows that the other is alive. Viola goes into service with Count Orsino of Illyria, disguised as a young man, “Cesario.”

*Synopsis from the Folger Version of Twelfth Night

1:53

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R39jE4SUEF4

Here is a trailer from a contemporary version to get you started.

+

Read: Twelfth Night: Acts 1 and 2Post #3: Choose one1. Compare and contrast the misidentification in Twelfth Night with

that from A Comedy of Errors.2. Consider common practices of traditional wooing. In what way

would they be different from Cesario’s endeavors to woo Olivia for Duke?

3. How does the clown prove that Olivia is a fool? Is he correct or incorrect in his assessment? (Act 1 Scene 5) Explain your answer with evidence from the text.

4. Analyze Maria’s speeches in Act 2 scene 3. Explain carefully her motive to entrap Malvolio. Do you believe that she is justified in doing it?

5. QHQ