Sofia YiPeriod 3

September 28, 2011

Chapter 4: If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet

What is a Sonnet?

The sonnet is a common type of poem and has a very extraordinary configuration.“No other poem is so versatile, so ubiquitous, so

various, so agreeably short as the sonnet” (Foster 23).

It has been written since the English Renaissance, and is still very popular with readers and poets today.

It has a unique structure and is easily recognizable if you know what to look for.

Structure of a Sonnet

Sonnets are 14 lines long and are usually written in iambic pentameter.

Nearly all lines have 10 syllables, or close to ten.

Due to the two traits above, sonnets usually take on a square shape. “And ten syllables of English are about

as long as fourteen lines are high: square” (Foster 23).

ContentPoems use choice of images, music of

language, idea content, and cleverness of wordplay to appeal to readers.

A very important part of the sonnet is form. It’s important to the meaning of the poem. “The vessel, the sonnet form, actually becomes

part of the meaning of the poem” (Foster 27).Sonnets have two units of meaning, which are

connected. A shift takes place between them. Almost like two cities connected by a bridge. The first unit usually has eight lines, the second has six.

Types of SonnetsThere are two main types of sonnets, the

Petrarchan and the Shakespearean.Petrarchan sonnets usually have a rhyme scheme

that groups the first eight lines and the last six.Shakespearean sonnets usually in 3 sets of four,

except for the last two lines which are a couplet. Some groups usually have something in common.“But even here, the first two groups of four have

some unity of meaning, as do the third four and the last two. Shakespeare himself often works a statement of its own into that last couplet, but also usually ties in pretty closely with the third quatrain” (Foster 24).

Rhyme Scheme

Different types of sonnets have different kinds of rhyme schemes. For example, the Shakespearean Sonnet’s is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

Not all sonnets have a rhyme scheme. A “blank sonnet”, for example, has no rhyme scheme but still possesses iambic pentameter.“There is something called a blank sonnet,

‘blank’ meaning it employs unrhymed lines” (Foster 27).

Example of a Sonnet The following sonnet is “An Echo from Willow-Wood,” written

by Christina Rossetti.

“Two gazed into a pool, he gazed and she,

Not hand in hand, yet heart and heart, I think,Pale and reluctant on the water’s brink,

As on the brink of parting which must be,Each eyed the other’s aspect, she and he,

Each felt one hungering heart leap up and sink,Each tasted bitterness which both must drink,

There on the brink of life’s dividing sea.Lilies upon the surface, deep below

Two wistful faces craving each for each,Resolute and reluctant without speech:-

A sudden ripple made the faces flow,One moment joined, to vanish out of reach:

So those hearts joined, and ah were parted so” (Foster 25).

A Shakespearean Sonnet This sonnet written by William Shakespeare himself, and is

Sonnet 18.

“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 fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou owest;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this and this gives life to thee” (Shakespeare 18).

Sonnets in LifeSonnets are frequently written even today and remain

one of the most popular types of poetry.The sonnet is so agreeable due to its versatility,

variety, and shortness. People usually tend to prefer such traits for some items in everyday life.

Sonnets are not too short and not too long. Sometimes it’s the shorter things in life that take longer to make.“One of the old French philosophers and wits, Blaise

Pascal, apologized for writing a long letter, saying, ‘I had not time to write a short one’” (Foster 27).

Often objects in life take on a definite shape that helps you recognize them straight away. It’s similar to how you can tell a plate by its round structure.

Works Cited Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Columbus:

Glencoe/ McGraw-Hill, 2000. Print.

Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, Inc., 2003. Print.

Mabillard, Amanda. "Shakespeare Sonnet 18 - Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day."Shakespeare Online. 2000. Web. 27 Sept. 2011. <http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/18.html>.