Journal 6: Sonnet

Use three of the following poetic devices in your poem.

o  Paradox- seems self-contradictory but expresses a possible truth.

§  Crocodile dilemma

o  Understatement – an expression of less strength than expected

o  Caesura- a complete pause in a line of poetry, a break, usually near the middle of a verse.  It adds variety to the beat/meter of a poem

o  Enjambment – the breaking/continuation of one line of poetry from line to the next with no syntactical pause.

o  Litotes – a type of understatement, most commonly using an double negative. i.e. you are not a bad teacher.  That wasn’t too weak of an effort.  Not bad!

o  assonance- vowel sounds that rhyme

o  consonance- consonant sounds that rhyme

o  allusion- a reference to a well-known historical work/event

o  alliteration- initial sounds/syllables are repeated

metonymy/synecdoche- substitutes a word or phrase that relates to a thing, for the thing itself/a part that is substituted for a whole.

Sonnet

(sonn-IT): a sonnet is a distinctive poetic style that uses system or pattern of metrical structure and verse composition usually consisting of fourteen lines, arranged in a set rhyme scheme or pattern. There are two main styles of sonnet, the Italian sonnet and the English sonnet. The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, named after Petrarch (1304-1374) a fourteenth century writer and the best known poet to use this form, was developed by the Italian poet Guittone of Arezzo (1230-1294) in the thirteenth century. Usually written in iambic pentameter, it consists first of an octave, or eight lines, which asks a question or states a problem or proposition and follows the rhyme scheme a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a. The sestet, or last six lines, offers an answer, or a resolution to the proposed problem, and follows the rhyme scheme c-d-e-c-d-e.

When I consider how my light is spent                                                  a

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,                                      b

And that one talent which is death to hide                                           b

Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent                            a

To serve therewith my Maker, and present                                           a

My true account, lest he returning chide;                                              b

"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"                                            b

I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent                                                      a

That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need                                   c

Either man's work or his own gifts; who best                                       d

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state                               e

Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed                                              c

And post o'er land and ocean without rest:                                           d

They also serve who only stand and wait."                                           e

John Milton, "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent"

The sonnet was first brought to England by Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, in the sixteenth century, where the second sonnet form arose. The English or Shakespearean sonnet was named after William Shakespeare (1564-1616) who most believed to the best writer to use the form. Adapting the Italian form to the English, the octave and sestet were replaced by three quatrains, each having its own independent rhyme scheme typically rhyming every other line, and ending with a rhyme couplet. Instead of the Italianic break between the octave and the sestet, the break comes between the twelfth and thirteenth lines. The ending couplet is often the main thought change of the poem, and has an epigrammatic ending. It follows the rhyme scheme a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g.

 

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?                                             a

  Thou art more lovely and more temperate:                                        b

  Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,                                                 a

  And summer’s lease hath all to short a date:                                     b

  Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,                                      c

  And often is his gold complexion dimm’d:                                          d

  And every fair from fair sometime declines,                                       c

  By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d.                          d

  By thy eternal summer shall not fade                                                                 e

  Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;                                       f

  Nor shall Death brag thou wandered in his shade,                             e

  When in eternal lines to time thou growest:                                      f

  So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,                                     g

  So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.                                      g

Shakespeare, Sonnet XVIII. See Benet’s Readers Encyclopedia, Handbook to Literature, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Michael Prevatte, Student, University of North Carolina at Pembroke