Sonnets

SONNETS: Are almost always written in iambic pentameter (if you don’t know what this is please check your notes). The sonnet is usually used for the serious treatment of love, but has also been used to address questions of death, God (or religion), political situation and other related subjects. A sonnet almost always contains a turn, also known as a volta.

Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet – rhyme scheme: ABBAABBACDCDCD or ABBAABBACDECDE. It is usually divided into eight lines called an octave and six lines called a sestet. Usually between the octave and the sestet there is a division of thought: the turn coming in line nine. The octave presents a situation and the sestet a comment, or the octave presents an idea and the sestet an example, or the octave presents a question and the sestet an answer. Thus form reinforces idea.

When I Consider How My Light Is Spent

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."

John Milton

English or Shakespearian Sonnet – rhyme scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGG

The English sonnet is composed of three quatrains and a couplet. There is often a correspondence between the units marked by the rhyme and the development of thought. The three quatrains may present three examples of an idea and the couplet a conclusion, or the quatrains may present three metaphorical statements of one idea and the couplet an application of the idea. Thus, again, form reinforces idea. The turn usually comes in line 13 or during the final couplet.

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 damasked, 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.


Spenserian Sonnet – rhyme scheme: ABABBCBCCDCDEE

Like the Shakespearian sonnet you have 3 quatrains that seem to overlap with the rhyme, yet it develops up three distinct yet closely related ideas. The turn appears in the couplet. The couplet is used as commentary to the three quatrains or a conclusion to an argument formulated in the three quatrains.

The Spenserian Sonnet is based on a fusion of elements of both the Petrarchan sonnet and the Shakespearean sonnet. It is similar to the Shakespearan sonnet in the sense that its set up is based more on the 3 quatrains and a couplet,a system set up by Shakespeare; however it is more like the Petrarchan tradition in the fact that the conclusion follows from the argument or issue set up in the earlier quatrains.

Spenser usually used a parody of the blazon. A blazon was the idealization or praise of a mistress (usually by singling out different parts of the woman’s body and finding appropriate corresponding metaphors, or by using Metonymy, a part of the woman, or her body to stand for the whole – SEE “My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun”).

"Sonnet LIV"
Of this World's theatre in which we stay,
My love like the Spectator idly sits,
Beholding me, that all the pageants play,
Disguising diversely my troubled wits.
Sometimes I joy when glad occasion fits,
And mask in mirth like to a Comedy;
Soon after when my joy to sorrow flits,
I wail and make my woes a Tragedy.
Yet she, beholding me with constant eye,
Delights not in my mirth nor rues my smart;
But when I laugh, she mocks: and when I cry
She laughs and hardens evermore her heart.
What then can move her? If nor mirth nor moan,
She is no woman, but a senseless stone.
Hybrid or Modern Sonnet:

A hybrid or modern sonnet can take on any variety of sonnet forms (combing them or ignoring them altogether). Some modern sonnets have rhyme scheme (though not all use true rhyme) and others do not. Usually the all have a turn, though the turn can come anywhere from line 9 to line 13. Just note that if the poem has fourteen lines it is probably some form of sonnet. Look for the turn.