Let’s talk about Sonnets! I wanted to do something different today and decided a short discussion on sonnets would be fun.
There are Two Major Sonnet Forms: Petrarchan and Shakespearean
The Basic Form of a Sonnet is Fourteen Lines in Iambic
[ U unstressed syllable / stressed syllable ]
[ u/ u/ u/ u/ u/ ] x14
Petrarchan (Italian)
Eight lines (Octave)
Rhyme Scheme: ababcdcd
Six Lines (Sestet)
Rhyme Scheme: cdecde
Example Petrarchan Sonnet:
The Poet Petrarch (Origin of the Petrarchan Sonnet)
Sonnet 101 [Ways apt and new to sing of love I’d find]
Ways apt and new to sing of love I’d find, A Forcing from her hard heart full many a sigh, B And re-enkindle in her frozen mind A Desires a thousand, passionate and high; B O’er her fair face would see each swift change pass, C See her fond eyes at length where pity reigns, D As one who sorrows when too late, alas! C For his own error and another’s pains; D See the fresh roses edging that fair snow C Move with her breath, that ivory descried, D Which turns to marble him who sees it near; E See all, for which in this brief life below C Myself I weary not but rather pride D That Heaven for later times has kept me here. E
Source: poets.org
Shakespearean (English)
No Octave/Sestet structure
Rhyme Scheme: ababcdcdefefgg
Note: final couplet (gg) is a key part of this type of sonnet
Example Shakespearean Sonnet:
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130)
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; A
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; B
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; A
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. B
I have seen roses damasked, red and white, C
But no such roses see I in her cheeks; D
And in some perfumes is there more delight C
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. D
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know E
That music hath a far more pleasing sound; F
I grant I never saw a goddess go; E
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. F
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare G
As any she belied with false compare. G
Source: poets.org
One of my favorite poets/writers who wrote sonnets is Edna St. Vincent Millay
Thou Art Not Lovelier Than Lilacs
Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fair B
Than small white single poppies,—I can bear B
Thy beauty; though I bend before thee, though A
From left to right, not knowing where to go, A
I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor there B
Find any refuge from thee, yet I swear B
So has it been with mist,—with moonlight so. A
Like him who day by day unto his draught C
Of delicate poison adds him one drop more D
Till he may drink unharmed the death of ten, E
Even so, inured to beauty, who have quaffed C (slant rhyme?)
Each hour more deeply than the hour before, D
I drink—and live—what has destroyed some men. E
Source: allpoetry.com
There are many adaptations to the original sonnet forms of the past. As you can see from the poem (above) by Millay which contains a variation of the traditional rhyme schemes found in both the Petrarchan and Shakespearean. Her sonnets are often funny and extremely witty about subjects that were considered slightly risky at her time (1920’s).
Other Sources/References used:
The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms
Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Collected Sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this brief and basic discussion of Sonnets.
-Alina
