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Type 1: the Petrarchan sonnet
Structure:
an octave (an eight-line stanza) followed by an sestet (a six-line stanza)
Rhyme scheme:
Rhyme scheme
the rhyme scheme interconnects the sound of the three quatrains: abab bcbc cdcd ee
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Textual study: sonnet 18
Rhyme scheme
abab cdcd efef gg
Note
Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. The first 126 sonnets are dedicated to a young man; sonnets 127—152 are dedicated to a “dark lady”, and the final two are allegorical.
William Shakespeare (2): Sonnet
Sonnet: a definition Types of sonnet Textual study:
– Sonnet 18 – Sonnet 29
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Sonnet: a definition
“Thee” in this line means “you”. The sonnet begins with a question: how can I compare you to a summer’s day? And the answer to the question follows up in the next line.
Here in this line, “more temperate” means more gentle, more restrained. Why did the poet say you are more lovely and more gentle than the summer’s day? The following lines give the answer:
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Type 3: the Spenserian sonnet
Structure
three quatrains and a couplet, and the couplet introduces new rhyme sounds to the poem
abbaabba cdecde
or: abbaabba cdcdcd
Note:
This type of sonnet is constructed with a change of thought or turn between the octave and the sestet, so that the content and the form are allied.
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Type 2: the Shakespearean sonnet
Structure
three quatrains (a four-line stanza) followed by a couplet (a pair of rhymed lines)
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Thou art more lovelvely, you are more gentle. The youth's beauty is more perfect than the beauty of a summer day.
A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter.
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Types of Sonnet
There are mainly three types of sonnet:
– The Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet – The English (Shakespearean, Elizabethan) sonnet – The Spenserian sonnet
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Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
Today, the month of “May” may be considered as a month in late spring, but in Shakespeare’s time, May was a summer month, because the calendar in use lagged behind the true sidereal calendar by at least a fortnight.
What is the structure? What is the meter like? What is its rhyme scheme? What is the theme of this sonnet?
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Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
darling buds of May - the beautiful, much loved buds of the early summer; favorite flowers.