Three Types of Sonnets
Petrarchan (Italian)
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Shakespearean (English)
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Spenserian (English)
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14 lines
Iambic pentameter
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14 lines
Iambic pentameter
|
14 lines
Iambic pentameter
|
|
Octave/Sestet
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Yes
|
No
|
No
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Quatrain/Couplet
|
No
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Yes
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Yes
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Content
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* Octave presents a narrative,
states a proposition, or raises a question;
* The sestet drives home
the narrative by applying the proposition, or solving the problem.
* Usually about a woman.
*Theme of love as transcendant.
Highly exaggerated.
|
* Shakespeare sometimes
used the sonnet form to satirize the hyperbolic nature of the Petrarchan
sonnet, ie Sonnet 130
* By far the most prolific
and successful writer of English sonnets, the English sonnet form is
therefore named after him
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* Spenser complicates the
Shakespearean form by extending the number of rhymed endings.
* The couplet in the English
sonnet form often concludes the topic of the sonnet
* Spenser wrote series of
sonnets on a single topic: ie Amoretti
and Epithalamion
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Rhyme Scheme
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abbaabba + (cdecde)
or
(cdcdcd)
or (cdedce)
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abab cdcd efef gg
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abab bcbc cdcd ee
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·
Keep in mind that some sonnets
may have aspects of one or more kinds of sonnets
·
Think about how the format
changes the meaning of the poem, especially when you can compare one sonnet to
another.
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