Sonnet comes from the Italain word sonetto which means little song. A sonnet consists of fourteen lines using a strict rhyme scheme and format. A traditional English sonnet contains four quatrains and a couplet, using rhyme scheme a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. Each line of a sonnet is written in iambic pentameter, which is the more difficult part of the poem to execute.
Iambic pentameter is a system of rhythm in poetry. Each line consists of five iambic feet. To execute an iambic foot, one must follow an unstressed syllable by a stressed syllable:
da DUM
Successfully put together five iambic feet, and you have an iambic pentameter:
da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM
William Shakespeare is one of the more famous poets who frequently utilized iambic pentameter. This example from his Sonnet XVIII perfectly demonstrates proper iambic form:
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 dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
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.
There are other forms of sonnets, including the Italian sonnet, which is divided into an octave, rather than quatrains, and then a sestet, rather than a couplet. The rhyme scheme is a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a for the octet. For the sestet, the rhyme scheme is either c-d-e-c-d-e or c-d-c-c-d-c.
William Wordsworth wrote many poems, including this Italian sonnet entitled London, 1802:
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
Another form of the sonnet is the Spenserian sonnet, named after Edmund Spencer. The Spenserian sonnet consists of four quatrains and a couplet, like the English sonnet, but its rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b, b-c-b-c, c-d-c-d, e-e.
An example of an Edmund Spencer sonnet, entitled Happy ye leaves! whenas those lily hands:
Happy ye leaves! whenas those lily hands,
Which hold my life in their dead doing might,
Shall handle you, and hold in love's soft bands,
Like captives trembling at the victor's sight.
And happy lines! on which, with starry light,
Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look,
And read the sorrows of my dying sprite,
Written with tears in heart's close bleeding book.
And happy rhymes! bathed in the sacred brook
Of Helicon, whence she derived is,
When ye behold that angel's blessed look,
My soul's long lacked food, my heaven's bliss.
Leaves, lines, and rhymes seek her to please alone,
Whom if ye please, I care for other none.
And now I hope you enjoy some of the sonnets I have chosen by Writing.Com poets! |
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Poetry: December 20, 2006 Issue [#1439]
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