Sonnets
”A sonnet by any other name
would sound as sweet…”
What is a Sonnet?
A very structured type of poetry in which the
author attempts to show two related but
differing things to the reader in order to
communicate something about them.
Developed in Italy, probably in the
thirteenth century.
A sonnet shows two related, contrasting things
or ideas (e.g. life vs. death; youth vs. old age) to
communicate something about them (offer a
message)
Sonnets (cont.)
Consists of fourteen lines and follows one of
several set rhyme schemes:
English (Shakespearean)
Italian (Petrarchan)
Spenserian
Sonnet Vocabulary
Quatrain:
A stanza of four lines.
Octave:
An eight line stanza. Used primarily to denote the first
eight-line division of the Italian Sonnet as separate from
the last six-line division, the sestet.
Iambic pentameter:
A ten syllable line, consisting of five iambic feet
(alternating an unstressed/stressed pattern)
Poetic Foot:
A group of two syllables
Vocab. (cont.)
Sestet:
The second six-line division of an Italian Sonnet.
Following the eight-line division (octave), the sestet
usually makes specific a general statement that has
been presented in the octave or indicates the
personal emotion of the author in a situation that
the octave has developed.
Volta (The Turn):
The turn in thought– from question to answer,
problem to solution– that occurs at the beginning of
the sestet (line 9) in the Italian sonnet. Sometimes
occurs in the English sonnet between the twelfth
and thirteenth lines. Marked by “but,” “yet,” or
“and yet.”
Italian Sonnets (Petrarchan)
Distinguished by its
division into the
octave and sestet:
The octave rhyming
abbaabba
The sestet rhyming
cdecde, cdcdcd or
cdedce
More on Italian Sonnets…
The octave typically:
Presents a narrative
States a preposition
Or raises a question
The sestet:
drives home the narrative
by making an abstract
comment
applies the preposition
or solves the problem.
English Sonnets (Shakespearean)
Four divisions are used:
Three quatrains
Each with a rhyme scheme of its own, usually
rhyming alternating lines.
And a rhymed concluding couplet.
The typical rhyme scheme is
Abab cdcd efef gg
English (cont.)
each quatrain develops a specific idea, but one
closely related to the ideas in the other quatrains.
Not only is the English sonnet the easiest in
terms of its rhyme scheme, calling for only pairs
of rhyming words rather than groups of 4, but it
is the most flexible in terms of the placement of
the volta. Shakespeare often places the "turn," as
in the Italian, at L9
The two major sonnet forms:
Petrarchan (Italian) Shakespearean (English)
A A
B B
B A
A Octave (8 lines) B
A C
B D
B C 3 quatrains
A The TURN D
E
C F The TURN
D E
E F
C Sestet (6 lines) G Rhyming
D G Couplet
E
Spenserian
The Spenserian sonnet, invented by Edmund
Spenser, complicates the Shakespearean form,
linking rhymes among the quatrains:
Abab bcbc cdcd ee
there does not appear to be a requirement that the
initial octave sets up a problem that the closing sestet
"answers", as is the case with a Petrarchan sonnet.
The Spenserian Sonnet is very rare among
modern poets.
Works Cited
mrslivaudais.com/wp-
content/uploads/.../An-Introduction-to-
Sonnets.ppt
www.rhs.rcs.k12.tn.us/teachers/starrettk/
Sonnets.ppt
