MODULE 2 • ENGLISH 11

Sonnets

Resources

Poetry Alive: Reflections

Larry Liffiton and John McAllister (ed.)

Completing this lesson will help you to:

• be able to describe the elements of a sonnet and distinguish
  between an Italian and a Shakespearean sonnet

The sonnet is a type of formal lyric poetry that was developed in Italy

in the early fourteenth century. The writer Petrarch (1304-1374) wrote

a series of love poems in this style to a woman he called Laura, which

established sonnets as a vehicle for expressing romantic love. This is

still a very common theme in sonnets today.

The sonnet form, with some variations, became very popular in

England in the sixteenth century. It fell out of fashion thereafter but

modern writers seem to find sonnets interesting again.

Sonnet Variations

There are two main types of sonnets: Italian and Shakespearean.

The Italian Sonnet

There are two parts to an Italian sonnet, although there is no stanza

division to separate them. The first eight lines (octave or octet) rhyme

abbaabba; the remaining six lines (sestet) usually rhyme cdecde, but they

may vary, such as cdcede, as long as it is some combination of cde and

the last two lines do not rhyme. The octave typically sets up a

proposition or idea that is commented on in the sestet. Sometimes the

octave presents a problem that is resolved in the sestet; sometimes the

two parts show a conflict of feelings. The metre of an Italian sonnet is

typically iambic pentametre.

The Italian sonnet is also called Petrarchan, in honour of the Italian

poet who made it so popular.

The Shakespearean Sonnet

The Shakespearean sonnet is divided into three groups of four lines

(quatrains) with a rhymed couplet to finish things off. The rhyme

scheme is usually abab cdcd efefgg.

Typically in a Shakespearean sonnet, the statement of the idea or

problem is expanded to twelve lines and the couplet at the end sums

up the central theme of the sonnet. Like Italian sonnets, the metre of

Shakespearean sonnets is usually iambic pentametre.

Common Characteristics of Sonnets

Italian and Shakespearean sonnets have many things in common.

Sonnets always have fourteen lines and are usually iambic pentametre.

Many sonnets deal with the theme of romantic love. The power and

pleasure of nature is also a popular topic.

Many sonnets do not have titles but are instead numbered or referred

to by their first line.

A Closer Look at a Sonnet

Read the following sonnet by William Shakespeare.

"Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" (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 untrimm'd;

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.

First, notice the form of the sonnet. Do you see that it is composed of

three quatrains and a couplet? The rhyme scheme is the standard

pattern of abab cdcd efefgg. Can you tell what the metre is? Scan the

poem and you should determine that the metre of the sonnet is iambic

pentametre.

Next, consider the topic of the poem—love. Shakespeare is writing to a

woman ("thee") and comparing her to a summer's day. The reader is

told about the qualities of a summer day, i.e., summer may be too short

(line 4) or the heat may be too extreme (line 5). The lover is described

as more "lovely" than summer at its best, and her personality more

"temperate" than the hot summer.

In other words, she is more even-tempered than the sun. Lines 3 to 7

show how unreliable summer is, being too short in span, too hot, or

too cloudy, "gold complexion dimmed."

In line 7, "And every fair ... declines," "fair" means "beauty," and tells

that a summer day isn't always fair in the sense of a beautiful day,

because sometimes the weather turns bad (declines).

Lines 9 and 10, "But they eternal... fair thou ow'st," mean that the

lover's prime of life of youth (i.e., summer) will never fade, nor will her

beauty (fair) be lost.

Lines 7 and 8 remind us that this is the way things are by "chance."

The couplet (the last two lines) sums up the central theme of the poem.

This is typical of most Shakespearean sonnets. "This" in the last line

refers to the poem itself. The lover's beauty will last as long as this poem

remains to give it life. Art, in this case poetry, gives immortality.

You probably also noticed Shakespeare's use of figurative language in

this sonnet. See if you can identify his use of personification,

metaphor, and alliteration.