SHAKESPEARE’s SONNETS Metrical features 06.05.09 Del Bello GENERAL SONNET INFORMATION The Sonnet Derives from the Occitan (romance language of Southern France) word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song." By the thirteenth century, “sonnet” had come to signify a poem of fourteen iambic pentameter lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure. English (Shakespearean) Sonnet 1. simplest and most flexible pattern of all sonnets: 3 quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet: 2. a b a b c d c d e f e f g g 3. each quatrain develops a specific idea, but one closely related to the ideas in the other quatrains. 4. most flexible in terms of the placement of the volta. Shakespeare often places the "turn," as in the Italian, at L9 Rhyme scheme Petrarchan (Italian) rhyme scheme: abba, abba, cd, cd, cd abba, abba, cde, cde Shakespearean (English, or Elizabethan) rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? A Thou art more lovely and more temperate: B Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A And summer's lease hath all too short a date: B Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, C And often is his gold complexion dimmed, D And every fair from fair sometime declines, C By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed: D E But thy eternal summer shall not fade, F Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, E Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade, F When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, G So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, G So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. A FEW NOTES ON METRE PROSODY The science of versification; that part of the study of language which deals with the forms of metrical composition; OED v. prosody WHY METER? WHO CARES ABOUT METER? 3 objectives: (1) increase your sensitivity to the formal properties of poetry (i.e. what sounds do) (2) heighten your pleasure and illumination in reading poetry (3) understand PROSODY (=features that have to do with how you read out verses) How does meter work? How does it mean/create meaning? • Ritualistic framing (metered language is different from ordinary language and thus “framed” as an artistic artifice) • Departure from expected metrical norms. This creates an emotional effect or possibly estrangement. PROSODIC TENSION (between perfect or ideal metrical pattern and actual rhythm) • Association or convention. Having been associated to a certain genre of poetry, a given meter may retain some of the meaning(s) associated to that poetry. What does meter do? • Focuses reader’s attention and refines awareness • Induces hypnosis (meter in most accentual poetry is slightly faster than the normal heart beat exhilarating effect • Has physiological or possibly sexual overtones. IDEAS and METER • In the moment of composition, one of the central concerns of the poet is arrangement of metric pattern to achieve some kind of musicality. • Impulse toward order while allowing deviation EASY SCANNING MARKERS You can use | to divide feet in a line of verse. Use capitals (maiuscole) to indicate STRESS and lower case (minuscole) to indicate UNSTRESSED Example: the PO|eTRY|of EARTH |is NE|ver DEAD| What is a caesura? Caesura is a pause somewhere in the middle of a verse. Some lines have strong (easily recognizable) caesurae, which usually coincide with punctuation in the line (; : etc) while others have weak ones. It's conventional to mark them with a double bar:|| England - how I long for thee! || Examples of caesuras A very strong central pause was very common in OLD ENGLISH VERSE: Hwæt! we Gar-Dena || on geardagum ("Lo! we Spear-Danes, in days of yore. .") What does a caesura do? It creates rhetorical emphasis, suspension, or a similar effect, depending on where it is placed: Alexander Pope, for example, was able to keep his heroic couplets interesting by varying the position of the caesurae, as here: Alas how changed! || What sudden horrors rise! A naked lover || bound and bleeding lies! Where, where was Eloise? || her voice, her hand, Her poniard, || had opposed the dire command. BASIC FOOT= iamb (di DUM) Most English poetry is in iambics, with common variations of metre (trochaic, spondaic, anapestic,) that are accepted as normal in iambic poetry So some critics say that all we have in English are only TWO main types of METER: STRICT IAMBIC (no variations) or LOOSE IAMBIC (normal variations) When a line is said to exhibit iambic feet, the other meters, including spondee and pyrrhic, can substitute for iambs without the abandonment of the foundational metrical pattern. In fact, Robert Frost said that English actually has only two meters, strict iambic and loose iambic. "Strict meter would avoid anapestic or dactylic substitutions, which add syllables to a line. More supple meter might use these substitutions for ease or greater naturalness" (Writing Poems, 4th ed., by Robert Wallace and Michelle Boisseau (Addison-Wesley Longman Publishers, New York, 1996, 70). WARNING Keep in mind that metrical pattern is like a music score (the actual reading may differ, and place emphasis on a different syllable to achieve specific rhetorical effects) Poetic Foot (or Beat) A poetic foot is a repeated sequence of rhythm comprised of two or more stressed and/or unstressed syllables. Poetic meter is comprised of poetic feet So, here we go: Iamb = di DUM (1 unstressed syllable + 1 stressed) Trochee = DUM di (1 stressed + 1 unstressed) Anapest = di di DUM (2 unstr. + 1str) Dactyl = DUM di di (1 str. + 2 unstr.) Spondee = DUM DUM (2 stressed) Pyrrhic = di di (2 unstressed) Iambic pattern 1 unstressed syllable followed by 1 stressed syllable EXAMPLES: repose (re-POSE) belief (be-LIEF) complete (com-PLETE) The Iambic foot The iamb = (1 unstressed syllable + 1 stressed syllable) is the most common poetic foot in English verse. iambic foot examples: behold destroy the sun (articles such as “the” would be considered unstressed syllables) and watch (conjunctions such as and would be considered unstressed syllables) Trochaic Pattern 1 stressed syllable followed by 1 unstressed syllable EXAMPLES: garland (GAR-land) speaking (SPEAK-ing) value (VAL-ue) Anapestic pattern Dactylic pattern 1 stressed syllable followed by 2 unstressed syllables EXAMPLE: happiness (HAP-pi-ness) galloping (GAL-lop-ing) fortunate, Saturday, daffodil, murmuring, rhapsody Spondaic Pattern All syllables have equal stress EXAMPLE: Heartbreak “Out, out…” "pen-knife," "ad hoc," "heartburn" Six Common “base” feet /beats in English Technical Name Examples Italian equivalent IAMB; Cŏntént (=happy) Carrà 1 Papà DI DUM IAMBIC Děstróy Età ANAPEST; ŏf thĕ bést Fedeltà 2 DI DI DUM ANAPESTIC Intervene TROCHEE; Cóntĕnt Anche 3 DUM DI TROCHAIC Highway 4 DACTYL; Clássĭcăl via Latin from Greek daktulos, Massimo literally finger (the three bones of the finger Tavolo DUM DI DI DACTYLIC corresponding to the three syllables). SPONDEE; Híght tíde Tuca Tuca DUM DUM 5 Qua Qua SPONDAIC Hum drum Mamma Nanna PYRRHIC The sea /sŏn ŏf /mists Ma in un giorno 6 DI DI Possible effects (? Tentative depends on context) Technical Name Examples Possible prosodic effect ? IAMB; Cŏntént (=happy) Exhilaration (heartbeat +) (1) Děstróy Euphoria IAMBIC ANAPEST; ŏf thĕ bést Acceleration (2) Intervene Pressure, Urgency ANAPESTIC Finality TROCHEE; Cóntĕnt Suspension (3) Highway Apprehension TROCHAIC DACTYL; Clássĭcăl Order (4) Control DACTYLIC SPONDEE; Híght tíde Mystery (5) Hum drum Awe Power SPONDAIC Sacred quality /Military march PYRRHIC The sea /sŏn ŏf Quickening Acceleration (6) /mists LINE LENGTHS One Foot Monometer Two Feet Dimeter Three Feet Trimeter Four Feet Tetrameter Five Feet Pentameter (blank verse or heroic couplet) Sex Feet Hexameter Seven Feet Heptameter Eight Feet Octameter The most popular verse types in English BLANK VERSE Unrhymed iambic pentameter (ten syllables or decasyllabic) Of man’s first disobedience and the fruit A Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste B Brought death into the world and all our woe C (Milton, PARADISE LOST) HEROIC Rhymed iambic pentameter COUPLET When I consider everything that grows A Holds in perfection but a little moment B That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows A Whereon the stars in secret influence comment B (Shakespeare, SONNETS) RULES OF THUMB: WHAT YOU NEED TO REMEMBER 1) IDENTIFY SYLLABLES poem = PO-em (1 stressed + 1 unstressed) poetry = PO-e-try (1 stressed + 2 unstressed) relief = re-LIEF (1 unstressed + 1 stressed) recommend = re-com-MEND (2 unstressed + 1 stressed) discomfort = dis-COM-fort (1 unstressed + 1 stressed + 1 unstressed) entertainment = en-ter-TAIN-ment (2 unstressed + 1 stressed + 1 unstressed) REMEMBER that Basic meter is based on the fact that all syllables in English are either stressed (at one of several different levels) or unstressed. In ordinary speech, we pay no attention to the patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables, so that no pat tern emerges--the "pattern" is random. In metrical poetry, however, the poet takes syllables and arranges them so that the stresses that fall normally will occur in set patterns, as defined by the various feet (iamb, trochee, etc.). Also REMEMBER that Meter is not made up of syllables but beats per line Now you can produce your SCANSION: (1) the act of scanning, or analyzing poetry in terms of its rhythmic components (2) the graphic representation, indicated by marked accents, feet, etc., of the rhythm of a line or lines of verse You may have seen scansion marks like the The curved lines are “unstressed”following: syllables while the straight