Lecture 6:Sonnets and OdesPATRICK MOONEY, M.A.

ENGLISH 10, SUMMER SESSION A

30 JUNE 2105

Quiz 3

Questions 1–4 (two points each):– Identify the author of

the poem

– Say something else salient about the poem, such as:

● Its title● Something

pertinent about its form.

Question 5 (two points):– Describe the form of

any poem from last night’s reading as specifically as possible, other than poems I just recited.

Bonus questions (pick only one; one point)

a) What is Percy Shelley’s wife most famous for?

b) What position do Philip Eubanks and John D. Schaeffer take on “academic bullshit”?

c) How many different sonnets – and types of sonnets – were you assigned to read today?

Single closest answer of all those who attempt this question gets the point.

The “about” game

A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears:She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force; She neither hears nor sees,Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course With rocks and stones and trees.

– William Wordsworth

Back to the sonnet

● A form originating in Italy in the 13th century; the Italian word sonetto means "little song."

– The first Italian sonneteer was Giacomo da Lentini, but the most famous early Italian sonneteer was Petrarca (called "Petrarch" in English).

● Sonnets written more or less after the Italian model are often called Italian or Petrarchan sonnets, even though Petrarch did not invent the form.

a I met a traveller from an antique land,b Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stonea Stand in the desart. . . . Near them, on the sand,b Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,a And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,c Tell that its sculptor well those passions readd Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,c The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;e And on the pedestal, these words appear:d My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,e Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!f Nothing beside remains. Round the decaye Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,f The lone and level sand stretch far away.”

The Italian (“Petrarchan”) sonnet

● Like almost all sonnet forms, this one has fourteen lines.

– This is divided into an octet, or octave (the first eight lines) and a sestet (the last six lines).

● Typically, the octet sets up or describes a problem, expresses a desire (often romantic), or otherwise reflects on a situation that causes doubt or anxiety for the speaker.

● Typically, the rhyme scheme of the octet is abba abba, though other variations occur.

The Italian (“Petrarchan”) sonnet

● Typically, the sestet resolves the problem or other tension set up by the octet.

● The rhyme scheme for the sestet may be cdecde or cdcdcd, though many other variations occur.

● The separation between the octave and the sestet is called the volta, an Italian word meaning "turn."

– Sometimes the volta is just referred to as “the turn.”

Wordsworth, “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge”

a Earth has not anything to show more fair:b Dull would he be of soul who could pass byb A sight so touching in its majesty:a This City now doth, like a garment, weara The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,b Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lieb Open unto the fields, and to the sky;a All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.c Never did sun more beautifully steepd In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;c Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!d The river glideth at his own sweet will:c Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;d And all that mighty heart is lying still!

More on the English sonnet

● The sonnet first enters English-language poetry in the early 16th century with the English poet Thomas Wyatt.

● The sonnet's place in English-language poetry was cemented by Shakespeare, who wrote 154 sonnets (not including those that are incorporated into his plays).

● Sonnets written after this pattern are often called English or Shakespearean sonnets, even though Shakespeare did not bring the form into English.

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?–42)

Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1536.

The English sonnet ...

● Like the Petrarchan form, has fourteen lines, but organized into three four-line quatrains and a final couplet.

– Typically, in Shakespeare's sonnets, the volta comes between the last quatrain and the couplet.

– In pre-Shakespearean English sonnets, the volta often comes between the second and third quatrains.

● Generally in iambic pentameter (especially in English).

● Shakespeare's sonnets often explicitly mock or otherwise subvert the conventions of the Petrarchan sonnet.

One more sonnet form…

● Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” consists of five sonnets based on the Italian terza rima form.

– Terza rima is Italian for “third rhyme.”

– It was first used by Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy.

– Stanzas are organized into tercets (three-line groups).

– Rhyme scheme can go on as long as desired with the pattern A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D …

a O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,b Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves deada Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,b Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,c Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,b Who chariotest to their dark wintery bedc The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,d Each like a corpse within its grave, untilc Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blowd Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fille (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)d With living hues and odours plain and hill:e Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;e Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!

The ode

● Based on a classical Greek form.

● Serious in approach and elevated in tone.

● Traditionally a musical form, either chanted with musical accompaniments or sung (with or without instrumental music).

● An ode that adheres strictly to the Classical form has a strophe, an antistrophe, and an epode.

● There are also other forms, sometimes grouped together as irregular odes.

John Keats’s Odes

● Six written in 1819, considered to be some of his finest poems.

● Let’s take a close look at “Grecian Urn” first, then “Melancholy.”

Media credits

The photo of Sir Thomas Wyatt (slide 12) is out of copyright because it is nearly four hundred years old.

Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Thomas_Wyatt_(1)_by_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger.jpg