Background
What is a sonnet?
The next segment of this unit discusses the origins of the sonnet. The subject matter of a sonnet and its form were changed in Shakespeare's hands, yet he was influenced by what came before him. It will be instructive and interesting, I believe, to compare what Shakespeare wrote with an example of the sort of poem so popular in his era. The students will be able to see his satiric intent, and to appreciate his artistry when compared to that of less able writers.
I will also be explaining the structure of the Italian sonnet and the most common thematic content of its originators. In some ways, Shakespeare continues its form and content, but also makes significant changes. I would like my students to compare the sonnets he wrote that are closer to the Italian form with those containing his innovations. We will examine how these changes affect the message.
It is my hope that students will look at the structure of individual sonnets, and I shall ask them to begin to consider the question, "Why?" They may not guess correctly, but if they can begin to see that structure leads to meaning, and wonder how they are connected, I will have accomplished my goal.
The History
Here is what the students will learn about the history of the sonnet. The sonnet was not born in England. It originated in Italy in the twelfth or thirteenth century, but had it not been for the influence of Francesco Petrarca (1304-74), or Petrarch, as he is known in English, the sonnet might not have spread to English speaking nations. It was Petrarch
who founded the dominant paradigm of the sonnet form in Italy. His great innovation was in using the sonnet as a vehicle for exquisite versification in the vernacular. Petrarch achieved extraordinary lyrical eloquence hitherto thought to belong only to Latin by using the Italian spoken by his contemporaries and became a model of stylistic elegance for all European vernacular languages. 4
There will be more on Petrarch's form and themes shortly. It may not be necessary to have my students trace all of the contributions to the form of the sonnet in England, but here is a short history that may be of interest to the instructor. Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the sonnet to England (1503-42) following his visit to Italy in 1527. He translated some of Petrarch's work into English, and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, further developed the English sonnet form. However, it was the popularity of an anthology called Tottel's Miscellany, published in 1557, that "is largely responsible for bringing into the mainstream of English verse a poetic form that had come into prominence during the fourteenth century in Italy." 5 The English sonnet was further popularized by Sir Philip Sidney, particularly in his Astrophil and Stella sonnet sequence, published after the author's death in 1591. It was at this point that the sonnet fad "really took off"6 Sidney's poems set "off a wave of English sonnet-sequences."7
Originally, the English sonnet (the word also means "song") did not necessarily have fourteen lines, but in 1587, George Gascoigne outlined the sonnet form in his Certain Notes of Instruction Concerning the Making of Verse or Rhyme in English by stating the required number of lines, the number of syllables per line, the rhyming sequence, and more.8 The difficulty of the sonnet form, "with its demanding formal requirements in length, meter and rhyme,"9 made it a suitable pastime for "the elite literary circles of court"10 as a proving ground of one's skill. The popularity of sonnets, and the custom of using them to woo one's beloved, encouraged many to try their hand at this difficult form. However, a sonnet writer who did not belong to the aristocracy remained unusual. The mere fact that Shakespeare wrote sonnets was the first of his departures from the accepted practices. Shakespeare's sonnets "clearly deviate from the strictly elite, courtly, stylized precedents of Wyatt, Surrey, and Sidney."11
As a man not interested simply in the continuation of courtly manners, Shakespeare altered the sonnet in some important ways. But this did not mean that he was immune to the influence of Petrarch and the English sonneteers. According to Callaghan, "Shakespeare's sonnets, while they do not simply conform to Petrarchan conventions, and indeed are often written against them, are always conceived in relation to them."12
The subject matter of a Petrarchan sonnet was restricted to particular themes. A typical Petrarchan sonnet concerned unrequited and unconsummated love. We would hear of a poor, suffering lover who laments the coldness of his beloved. Shakespeare followed this model in Romeo and Juliet in representing Romeo's attitude toward the character Rosaline. This is the woman beloved by Romeo as the play begins, the one who causes [him] so much grief that he shuts himself up in his room and closes the curtains, making the day like night. She had refused Romeo's advances, preferring to live a chaste life. "The fundamental premiss [sic] of the Petrarchan sonnet is simple: a man loves and desires a beautiful woman who is dedicated to chastity."13
What changes did Shakespeare bring to the subject matter of a sonnet? Shakespeare did not conform to the themes of traditional courtly love, but "discovered his own system of expression."14 He found new themes and new honesty to express in his sonnets. He explored promiscuousness, adultery, infatuation, self-loathing, the unpleasant effects of old age, and many other topics that had not been the "accepted" subjects of the sonnet. He also approached them in a new way. Rather than focusing on the exaggerated perfection of the target of his affection, for instance, Shakespeare allowed for flaws. In a Shakespeare sonnet, such as 130, we learn the "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun." This was both an ironic twist on the usual Renaissance love poem, and a deviation from accepted subject matter.
To see what sort of poetry was common for the age, the sort of poem being parodied by Shakespeare, I would like my students to read the following. It is Sonnet 7 from a hundred sonnets by Thomas Watson written in 1582 entitled Hekatompathia or Passionate Century of Love, as quoted by Edmondson and Wells:15
Hark you that list to hear what saint I serve:
Her yellow locks exceed the beaten gold;
Her sparkling eyes in heaven a place deserve;
Her forehead high and fair of comely mould;
Her words are music all of silver sound;
Her wit so sharp as like can scarce be found:
Each eyebrow hangs like Iris in the skies;
Her eagle's nose is straight of stately flame;
Her lips more red than any coral stone;
Her neck more white, than aged swans that moan;
Her breast transparent is, like crystal rock;
Her finger long, fit for Apollo's lute;
Her slipper such as Momus dare not mock;
Her virtues all so great as make me mute:
What other parts she hath I need not say,
Whose face alone is cause of my decay.
If we compare this to a sonnet by Shakespeare, we see enormous differences. As Paul Fry, Professor of English at Yale University, put it in our seminar, Shakespeare presented a "nuanced evocation of feelings instead of extreme hyperbole."
At this point, it might be fun to ask my students, "What difficult tasks does a man of the 21st century try to perform to prove his love?" Do we even have any modern-day counterpart?
The form
As part of their investigation of how form follows function, I plan on teaching the difference in organization between the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet. The form of the Petrarchan sonnet had very particular characteristics. It had fourteen lines of ten syllables each. It had a "major system" of eight lines, called an octave. This could be organized in two quatrains. The rhyming sequence of the octave was arranged so that the end of the first, fourth, fifth and eighth lines have one rhyme, and the second, third, sixth and seventh have a second rhyming sound. This would be notated as abbaabba. This was followed by a "minor system" of six lines, also known as a sestet with a rhyme scheme of ccdeed. This form provided a platform for a two-part statement of the question or problem in the octave, and the answer or solution in the sestet. The transition between the two, called the volta in Italian, or the "turn" in English, usually took place at the beginning of the sestet in the ninth line.
The Shakespearean sonnet differed in important ways. It maintained the fourteen ten syllable lines, but now they were organized into three quatrains (four lines) and a rhyming couplet. The typical rhyme scheme was abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The turn, or volta, often came at the start of the third quatrain - the ninth line - but not necessarily. It is not possible to state that there was one and only one pattern for Shakespeare's sonnets. "Attempting to speak generally about the relationship of couplet to quatrains, the critics have usually hedged their bets. The expenditure of words like 'commonly,' 'frequently,' and 'often' is greater in the literature about Shakespeare's sonnets than in any I know."16 However, it is possible to state with confidence that Shakespeare did not always follow the pattern used by Petrarch, or for that matter, other English sonneteers. Some of the reason for the change was expediency. Robert Matz explains:
While the rhyme schemes of the Italian sonnet usually emphasized a split between the sonnet's first eight lines and its last six, English sonneteers most commonly employed a rhyme scheme that broke the sonnet's fourteen lines in to three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet. There were practical reasons for this. It is harder to find words that rhyme in English than in Romance languages like Italian, French and Spanish, so dividing the sonnet into quatrains alleviated the need to carry two rhymes through eight lines.17
However, there were other consequences of this change in form that I will now describe. The description to follow, and the sonnets I have cited, will form the basis for a lesson that is at the core of this curriculum unit.
This change in form is reflected in a change of feeling, emphasis, or force of the meaning. As with other sonnets, the first and second quatrains present a problem. The variation comes in the expansion of the exposition of the problem from two quatrains to three, with the conclusion or answer coming finally in the last two lines, the rhymed couplet. One anonymous Shakespeare scholar of 1873 quoted by Booth called the problem and the solution the "appositions and contrasts."18 These "are commonly summed up and enforced in the couplet, which frequently presents the result of them in some other light or aspect than that conveyed in the quatrains, often giving great piquancy and increased intensity to what has gone before."19
The most common arrangement of the English Renaissance sonnet facilitates this kind of unexpectedly sharp statement… Left over from the sonnets' three quatrains was the final rhyming couplet, which had its own attractions. The pithiness of the couplet lends itself to providing a sudden solution to the problem explored in the previous twelve lines.20
The power of postponing the conclusion until the final couplet is apparent in Sonnet 30:
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought,
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste.
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoan'd moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.
Sonnet 12, on the other hand, makes its turn at the start of line nine:
When I do count the clock that tells the time
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night,
When I behold the violet past prime
And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white,
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard-
Then of thy beauty do I question make
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,
And die as fast as they see others grow,
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
In Sonnet 30, we are forced to withstand the terrible suffering for an additional four lines, when finally the poet and the reader are released from the pain at "I think on thee, dear friend." The poet also changes his mood when he thinks of another. This time it is "thy beauty" that he contemplates, sad that this must go "among the wastes of time" as do leaves on the trees. Not only must the reader suffer less within the span of eight lines, but the resolution is less complete, less free of any sad feelings since the possibility of the loss of the friend's beauty remains present.
David West compares Sonnet 34 to Sonnets 29 and 30, stating: "in all of [them] a long complaint is followed by a couplet in which all discontent is dissolved in praise of the beloved."21 Again, in Sonnet 34, the reader gets a well-earned relief in the rhymed couplet. The poet's suffering begins with a weather metaphor. A "beauteous day" was promised, but instead the poet is forced to "travel forth without my cloak." He suffers with disgrace for twelve long lines, still feeling "the strong offence's cross" in line 12. With an exclamation of "Ah!" line 13 begins, releasing the poet from his pain when he sees his love shed tears. The power of the release is strengthened by the delay.
Sonnet Notation
In order to scan Shakespeare's sonnets, my students will need to learn the proper notation. The information I am providing here is what I plan to teach.
For the most part, the sonnet has always had a fixed form containing fourteen lines with a set pattern of rhythm and rhyme. The rhyming pattern is indicated using letters. For instance, when every other line rhymes, we say its pattern is abab, cdcd, and so on. Here are the opening lines of Shakespeare's sonnet #130. I have used bold print with accents for the stressed syllables, and non-bold print to indicate unstressed syllables for the purposes of typing this unit. However, when teaching my students, I would demonstrate the marks above each syllable to my students. We will use marks like these for writing on our papers and on the board: u / u / u / u / u
My místress' eyes are nóthing líke the sún; - a
Córal is fár more réd than hér líps' red; - b
If snów be whíte, why thén her breásts are dún; - a
If haírs be wíres, bláck wíres grów on her héad. - b
Sun rhymes with dun, and red rhymes with head, so these are labeled abab using lower case letters. We continue with the alphabet, using a new letter for each new rhyme. In lines 5 to 8 we have white/cheeks/delight/reeks labeled cdcd. Lines 9-12 end with know/sound/go/ and ground labeled efef. Shakespeare's sonnets end with two lines that rhyme with one another, called a rhyming couplet. These are labeled gg.
Sonnets generally follow an equally proscribed pattern of rhythm, with ten alternating unstressed and stressed syllables. Each pair of syllables with this pattern is called an iamb, and when you have predominately five iambs in a row, it is called iambic pentameter - Shakespeare's most commonly used pattern. Labeling each syllable as stressed or unstressed is called scanning a line. In poetic scansion, we talk of dividing the line into "feet." Each "foot" contains the basic rhythm selected by the poet, though he may frequently vary it as he goes. Here are five kinds of frequently used metric feet:
Iamb – an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: u /
Trochee – a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable:/ u
Dactyl - a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables:/ u u
Anapest – two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable:u u /
Spondee – two equal stresses:u u
It might be fun to post examples of poems that generally follow each of the metric patterns listed above. Mary Oliver's A Poetry Handbook gives many examples. Here is a famous line that begins in dactylic meter: "Híckory díckory dóck." Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" is a nice example of a poem in anapestic meter: "For the móon never béams without brínging me dreams/Of the béautiful Annabel Lée." Shakespeare chooses the trochee for his witches in this couplet from Macbeth: "Dóuble, dóuble, tóil and tróuble;/ Fíre, búrn; and cáuldron búbble." Ms. Oliver cites the first foot of this line from the opening line of a sonnet by Keats as an example of spondee: "Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art." As she rightly tells us, however, this is not the only possible reading of the line. It is also possible to read the line with stresses on "I", "stead," "as," and "art." However, the first two words remains a good example of a spondee.
Students may ask, "Why does this matter? Who cares if one syllable or another is stressed? What difference does it make if one line rhymes and another doesn't?" Scanning Shakespeare's sonnets can reveal particular meanings and emphases, particularly when there is a variation. For instance, here is the opening line of sonnet 66: "Tíred with áll these, for réstful déath I cry." The first word begins with a stressed syllable, breaking the usual pattern. It is always a good idea to ask the question, "Why did Shakespeare change the pattern in this case? What did he want to say by drawing our attention to the pattern here?" Perhaps we are supposed to feel how truly tired the speaker of this line is, so tired that he cries out for death as a respite.
Occasionally we find sonnets that end with an unstressed syllable, as in the following line that begins sonnet 8: "Músic to heár, why heár'st thou músic sadly." Lines that end with an unstressed syllable are said to have a feminine ending. This extra syllable is no accident. We must ask ourselves, "What effect does this rhythm have on us? What was Shakespeare hoping to accomplish? How does the rhythm reflect the meaning of the line or entire sonnet?" Edmondson and Wells propose a purpose:
The bitter-sweet proposition of the opening line and the adverb 'sadly' make the line longer by one syllable, prolonging a pervasive feeling of melancholy. The metre places stress on the repeated 'music' and the verb 'to hear'. It is as if the lover's initial response to the music might have been different before the effect arrived at the end of the line.22
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