Sonnet variations Flashcards
(7 cards)
Typical structure and rhyme scene of an Italian / Petrarchan sonnet
One octave with a fixed rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA and one sestet with a flexible rhyme scheme but using new rhyming endings (i.e., CDCDCD). The thing to note with the sestet is that generally a rhyming couplet at the end is avoided (and was typically forbidden in Italy).
What is the point of the rhyme scheme of an Italian / Petrarchan sonnet?
The rhyme scheme distinctly divides the octave and sestet, and this shift points to a change in subject matter and tone. Typically this is where the volta sits.
What themes to Petrarchan sonnets typically explore?
Beauty in various forms (human, nature, divine) or love.
Think about how these themes are either conformed to or subverted and the effect.
What is the structure and rhyme scheme of a Spenserian sonnet?
The Spenserian sonnet was invented by Edmund Spenser, and uses an interlinked rhyme scheme of…
ABAB BCBC CDCD EE
So a Spenserian sonnet can be divided into three distinct quatrains with a separated final couplet. However, the interlinked/overlapping rhyme scheme suggests that the ideas developed in the first 12 lines are closely related, with the volta occurring in the final rhyming couplet.
Interestingly, Spenser often put the conjunctives ‘yet’ and ‘but’ at the start of the 9th line, tricking the reader into thinking that the volta was in the same place as in a Petrarchan sonnet. However, when observed closely, the real shift always still takes place before the final rhyming couplet.
Describe the structure and rhyme scheme of an English / Shakespearian sonnet
The Shakespearian sonnet has the simplest and most flexible pattern of all the sonnets, consisting of 3 quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet.
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
The placement of the volta, unlike in Italian and Spencerian sonnets, is quire flexible. It is often placed at the beginning of line 9, but can be delayed until the final rhyming couplet.
What is the most important thing to talk about when analysing a sonnet, regardless of naming specific forms/rhyme schemes?
The fact that a sonnet is a fundamentally dialectical or argumentative construction, exploring often contrasting ideas/emotions/actions. So once you define a poem as a sonnet, you must point to the relevance of the form in terms of the poem’s message/content.
What is the name for shortened and lengthened sonnets?
A ‘curtal’ sonnet is -14 lines and a ‘caudate’ sonnet is 14+
