Day 7 – Sonnet

DISCUSSION

Have you studied sonnets before, and if so, what did you learn?

Have you ever tried to write a sonnet? Why or why not? What was the subject or theme of your sonnet?

What would be the value of using the sonnet form to express yourself rather than free verse?

POETRY LESSON #7: Sonnets

Sonnet terms:

1. Petrarchan sonnet: octet/quatrains – “problem” or “question”, sestet/tercets – “resolution,” volta or “turn” at the 9th line, a rhyme scheme of abba abba cde cde OR a
2. Shakespearean sonnet: 3 quatrains and 1 couplet, with a shift between the second and third quatrains, a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg
3. Other terms: 14 lines, sequences, iambic pentameter

Crown of Sonnets: Marilyn Nelson, “A Wreath for Emmet Till”

Variations: Spenserian (abab bcbc cdcd ee), caudate (full sonnet followed by a coda or tail) and curtal (invented by Gerard Manly Hopkins, 10 1/2 lines, divided into sestet and quatrain with a final half-line. Example: “Pied Beauty“) … word sonnet (14 one-word lines)

ACTIVITY

Read Shakespeare’s sonnet, “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun,” and then listen to Sting’s song by the same name.

CRAFT

1) Examine the concluding couplets of three Shakespearean sonnets. Could these stand alone as wise sayings? What is their significance apart from the rest of the sonnet?

2) Examine the opening lines of Marilyn Nelson’s sonnets in “A Wreath for Emmett Till.” Read the final sonnet in the wreath.

TRADITION/PEER POETS

Trace the tradition of sonnets honoring a “beloved woman” from Petrarch (trans. by Mark Musa and/or Wyatt and Howard) to Spenser to Sydney to Wroth to Shakespeare to Donne to Milton.

Read a selection of sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

WRITE

Write a sonnet. Any form of the sonnet is acceptable: Petrarchan, Shakespearean, English, caudate, curtal …

HOMEWORK

Read “The ABC’s of Poetic Forms” (see packet) and know the meanings of each term used in it to designate genres of poetry.

RESOURCES:

Glossary of Poetic Terms: Sonnet by the Poetry Fountation
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/sonnet

Sonnet: Poetic Form by the American Academy of Poets
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/sonnet-poetic-form

http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm

• Wyatt and Surrey are often credited with introducing the sonnet form to English letters, and they did indeed popularize it with their translations of Petrarch. However, it is notable that Chaucer was probably the first translator of a sonnet into English. In the last quarter of the fourteenth century, Chaucer wrote the Canticus Troili in his Troilus and Criseyde as a version of Francesco Petrarca’s Canzioniere 132 Sonnet.