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How to Read a Sonnet Two Quatrains Is the Octave; the by a Couplet, As in WS 73 Last Six Lines Is the Sestet

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How to Read a Sonnet Two Quatrains Is the Octave; the by a Couplet, As in WS 73 Last Six Lines Is the Sestet Download this brochure as a PDF from VernBarnet.com 4 pages EXTERNAL SCAFFOLDING INTERNAL STRUCTURES (apart from meaning) (pattern of meaning) he “English” or Shakespearean” Within the external sonnet form, T sonnet consists of 14 lines of William Shakespeare (WS) draws iambic pentameter (you can easily his themes in various ways. speak one line in one breath) with the line end-rimes in a pattern of A. The same idea is pre- sented in three quatrains, abab-cdcd : efef-gg. Each set of four lines is a quatrain and the last two each with a different meta- lines are called a couplet, indented phor, a different angle on How to Read a Sonnet in Shakepeare’s Sonnets. The first the same theme, followed two quatrains is the octave; the by a couplet, as in WS 73 last six lines is the sestet. (dying day, dying year, in Shakespearean form An iamb is a set of two syllables dying fire, love now) and the first of which is unstressed and my 30. which means reading aloud the second stressed. Pentameter is B. The octave presents a a line of five feet. (A unit of rhythm in poetry is called a foot from po- theme, the third quatrain T summarizes it, and the cou- etry’s early association with dance; a line of poetry is like a measure of plet condenses it once again, as in WS 55 (you live in my T music.) Thus a line of iambic pen- tameter sounds lines) and my 15. T da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM. To avoid monotony and to sup- C. Often considered the normative internal port or illustrate the meaning, most sonnets vary the rhythm. A natural structure, the matter in pause within a line is called a the octave undergoes a caesura, in which case the rhythm volta, a turn, in the ses- might be indicated by a vertical tet, as in WS 29 (lonely, slash (|) in scansion: comforted) and my 14. x / x / x / | x / x / Vern Barnet All this the world well knows; yet none knows well D. Some sonnets expose their www.VernBarnet.com (Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129:13) themes by beautifully meander- A line with a complete unit of ing within the external form. meaning or grammatical boundary is end-stopped. If it continues to THE VOLTA the next line, it is enjambed. The volta, “turn,” is a feature of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Italian (Petrarchan) sonnets in is generally credited with develop- which, at line 9, a different per- ing the usual English rime scheme spective, voice, or tone is pre- (above) which Shakespeare adopted in most of his sonnets. It employs sented, often beginning with Yet seven end-rime sounds; the Italian or But or While. In Shakespeare, sonnet uses fewer in two quatrains: sometimes the volta isn’t made until the couplet. abba-abba for the octave and two MO Barnet, Kansas Vern City, 2018 copyright © tercets such as cde-cde or cdc-cdc. Edmund Spenser’s scheme was of- This page is for those with a technical interest in the Shakespearean sonnet form. 180429 ten abab-bcbc:cdcd-ee. page 4 What is a Sonnet? For me, writing a sonnet is Of course most sonnets don’t call on Often about the experience of love, a sonnet (“little sound”) like prayer. Specifically, the God and some call on no one, but what- collect’s five parts lead me to ever the subject in sonnet structure C, is usually a 14-line poem, in iambic pentameter rhythm — sonnet structure C (next page), the sense of shift (volta) from the octave da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM. The line end-rime where the octave (1) invokes to the sestet may parallel the sense of and (2) describes the Deity — shift from collect (2) to (3). This shift is scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is abab-cdcd : efef-gg. and the sestet presents (3) the why I find writing a sonnet like praying. Often a volta, a turn of thought, occurs after the 8th line. petition or praise. The conclud- Something happens. It is like describ- ing couplet may suggest the ing someone and then speaking directly DETAILS ON LAST PAGE. completion of (4) “in Christ, our to him or her; or a shift, as when Jesus, poem is not the way we know about sonata allegro form. Lord” and (5) “Amen.” The in the final crisis, said, “May this cup be clearest example in my book is taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as A ordinarily speak. W H You don’t have to know how to the controversial 118 “Collect.” you will” (Matthew 26:39). Auden calls it a “verbal con- score a gymnast when you see traption”: —“A poem is a rite; something amazing. You don’t hence its formal and ritualistic have to be a horticulturist to ap- HOW TO READ A SONNET character. Its use of language is preciate a garden’s appeal. You 0. Review the facing page. There 5. Do you find paronomasia — deliberately and ostentatiously don’t have to be able to paint to is no right way to read a punning and word-play? different from talk.” Just as a be awed by Velásquez. You don’t poem, only different ways. (Because of pronunciation dancer may beautifully and have to be a master chef to enjoy 1. How is the sonnet set in changes since Elizabethan skillfully move across a space a delicious meal. print? — Indentations and English, we sometimes fail to in ways beyond the usual gait, Still, knowing a little about an stanza breaks may be cues spot them in Shakespeare, so the poet often employs art form greatly enhances one’s for the voice. but many of mine are pretty words in strange ways. pleasure. The devices of a sonnet obvious; for example, my 23 can, in 14 lines, compress and 2. Which lines end with a com- “Examination.” The pleasure of poetry is, in reveal a world of meaning. Art is plete unit of meaning (often part, seeing how the structure the body language of the soul. one breath)? Capitalization 6. Are images and conceits (far- and the matter of the poem and punctuation can also fetched comparisons) fresh create each other — as I say The Hebrew Scripture pres- suggest how to breathe. and effective? How do they explaining the cover of my ents God through sounds rather 3. Read the sonnet aloud, per- structure the poem? book: than images (forbidden in the De- haps several times, as you 7. Does the thought, speaker, The poetic form does not merely calogue). God spoke, not wrote, to continue the next steps. A situation, metaphor, or contain a sentiment as a glass create the world. God’s voice may sonnet is a lyric, but read it story-line change direction? contains water. Rather speak of be heard many ways, including “a dramatically. Vary your vol- the grail containing wine; the 8. What theme or “thoughts of still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12). ume, speed, and pauses as meaning of each is intensified by the heart” arise? the other. In poetry the form and The word sonnet derives from the theme develops. the sentiment are as intimately “little-sound,” so unspoken words 4. Relish the sound-play — 9. Where is theme’s center? Let related as body and soul. on a page do not make a sonnet, repetition and contrasts in the voice transform any in- which begins with sounds, even rhythm, phrasing, allitera- formation into the theme. The fixed form sets up each the groans through which the tion (consonant sounds), as- 10. Is this sonnet a universe of sonnet’s secret inner rules, and Spirit may plead for us (Romans sonance (vowel sounds), meaning in a nutshell? How discovering how each contrap- 8:26-8). A sonnet is to be heard, words, internal rimes (but can that be displayed and tion works within the 700-year not seen, just as a musical score don’t overplay end rimes). conveyed through the voice? tradition can be thrilling. is not realized until it is per- formed. (A particular example in See Vern Barnet’s Thanks for Noticing: The Interpretation of Desire, pages 31-48, for an To be moved by a Beethoven my book is 13 “Cowboy Krishna explanation of general poetic devices and the sonnet form. The book is available from symphony, you don’t have to Plays his Flute.”) the KC Public Library and at local bookshops — see VernBarnet.com. © 2016, Vern Barnet, Box 45414, Kansas City, MO 64171 page 2 page 3 .
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