Shakespeare often writes in iambic pentameter to indicate formality or wealth in his characters, and writes in prose or looser verse forms to indicate an uneducated, confused, or dastardly character. Iambic pentameter is a type of meter employed in the Sonnet form, which Shakespeare uses frequently. He is also famous for his sonnets—the English Sonnet takes its alternate name from him: the Shakespearean sonnet.
· Iambic: employs iambs – a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables that produces metrical feet of one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable.
o Follows an unstressed – STRESSED syllabic pattern.
o (ba-BA ba-BA ba-BA ba-BA ba-BA)
o “from FAIRest CREATures WE desIRE inCREASE"
§ from Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 1”
· Pentameter: 5 feet (units of meter) in a line; usually 10 syllables, but at the least 5 STRESSED syllables.
o So, Iambic Pentameter: 5 feet of iambs in each line
Try writing your own line of iambic pentameter—pick something from nature, or one of your favorite possessions, to describe:
The sonnet form of poetry usually features iambic pentameter, and different combinations of end rhyme with octaves, quatrains, couplets, or sextets.
The sonnet develops a single idea or theme, and includes a volta, or turn, wherein this idea is clarified, redefined, or “turned” into something else. Sometimes this means introducing a new idea.
o End Rhyme: a rhyme scheme that features rhymes at the end of lines. This can be two lines in a row (couplet), or every other line (quatrain), and so on.
o Octave: stanza of 8 lines.
o Sextet: stanza of 6 lines
o Quatrains: stanza of 4 lines
o Couplet: stanza of 2 lines.
Now take the line you wrote above and continue the poem with another line, such that end rhyme is used. If you have time, try to make it a quatrain with an A-B-A-B rhyme scheme (see below).
Spenserian Sonnet
Requirements:
o 12 lines with this end rhyme scheme:
o A-B-A-B-B-C-B-C-C-D-E-D-E-E
o Notice the ending couplet.
o Volta (the turn) is usually at line 9 (But, so, not yet…)
“Amoretti, Sonnet 75” by Edmund Spenser
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I write it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize,
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eek my name be wiped out likewise.
Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse, your virtues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.
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Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet
Requirements:
o Two sections: Octave followed by sestet, each with different rhyme schemes.
o Octave’s end rhyme scheme:
o A-B-B-A A-B-B-A
o Sestet’s end rhyme scheme:
o C-D-C-D-C-D, or…
o C-D-D-C-D-C, or…
o C-D-E-C-D-E, or…
o C-D-E-C-E-D, or…
o C-D-C-E-D-C
o The volta, or turn, is usually at line 9.
“Sonnet 90” by PetrarchUpon the breeze she spread her golden hair
that in a thousand gentle knots was turned
and the sweet light beyond all radiance burned
in eyes where now that radiance is rare;
and in her face there seemed to come an air
of pity, true or false, that I discerned:
I had love's tinder in my breast unburned,
was it a wonder if it kindled there?
She moved not like a mortal, but as though
she bore an angel's form, her words had then
a sound that simple human voices lack;
a heavenly spirit, a living sun
was what I saw; now, if it is not so,
the wound's not healed because the bow goes
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English/Shakesperean Sonnet
Requirements:
o 3 Quatrains of alternating line and a couplet, following this end rhyme scheme:
o A-B-A-B
o C-D-C-D
o E-F-E-F
o G-G
o The volta is usually the final couplet, but Shakespeare is often flexible about where he puts it—it can be earlier than the final couplet.
“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare
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 dimm'd;
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.
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 dimm'd;
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.
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Try reading this one on your own—
-What is the rhyme scheme?
-What is the meter?
-Where is the volta?
-What kind of sonnet is it?
-Paraphrase it in your own words.
“Prologue” from Romeo & Juliet
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Now, try writing your own sonnet. You may choose any of the types. Make sure to select one specific theme or idea to develop, and use a volta, wherein you change or turn the reader’s expectations.
Topics to consider:
o Finding beauty in an unexpected place
o Describing the best example of love that you know—maybe an elderly couple whom you admire.
o Describing your experience of the natural world
o Describing an object that is meaningful to you—something unexpected
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