Lecture -10 Shakespearian Sonnets Sonnet
1 LECTURE -10 SHAKESPEARIAN SONNETS SONNET - 65 Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, But sad mortality o'ersways their power, How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower? O how shall summer’s honey breath hold out Against the wrackful siege of batt'ring days, When rocks impregnable are not so stout, Nor gates of steel so strong but time decays? O fearful meditation! Where, alack, Shall time’s best jewel from time’s chest lie hid? Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back? Or who his spoil or beauty can forbid? O none, unless this miracle have might, That in black ink my love may still shine bright. Structure Sonnet 65 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The English sonnet has three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the typical rhyme scheme of the form, abab cdcd efef gg and is composed in iambic pentameter, a type of poetic metre based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The first line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter: × / × / × / × / × / Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, (65.1) / = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus. The tenth line exhibits a rightward movement of the third ictus (the resulting four- position figure, × × / / , is sometimes referred to as a minor ionic): × / × / × × / / × / Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid? (65.10) 2 This figure may also be detected in lines eleven and fourteen, along with an initial reversal in line three.
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