British Literature – The Sonnet Name_________________________ There are three major sonnet forms: the Italian or Petrarchan; the English or Shakespearean; and the Spenserian. We will investigate the latter two. The English Sonnet The English sonnet is also called the Shakespearean sonnet because Shakespeare was the master of this sonnet form. English sonnets were divided into three QUATRAINS (groups of four lines with each containing its own rhyme scheme) and one COUPLET (a group of two lines). The rhyme scheme is usually ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The Spenserian Sonnet Edmund Spenser crafted his own version of the sonnet. Like the Shakespearean sonnet, the Spenserian version has three quatrains and a couplet, but it follows the rhyme scheme ABAB BCBC CDCD EE. This interlocking rhyme scheme pushes the sonnet toward the final couplet, in which the writer typically makes a key point or comment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spenser’s Sonnet 30 and Sonnet 75 – pages 257 and 258 Please answer questions in complete sentences. 1. Define humanism. (Use your notes.) 2. In Sonnet 30, to what does the speaker compare his and his beloved’s feelings? What do these comparisons indicate about the feelings of the two people? 3. Paraphrase the question the speaker asks in lines 5-8 of Sonnet 30. What does this question indicate about the speaker’s love? 4. How does the speaker’s beloved respond to the speaker’s actions in Sonnet 75? What do you think she means by what she says? 5. Assuming that these two sonnets are about the same speaker and the same woman, how has their relationship changed between Sonnet 30 and Sonnet 75? 6. Provide evidence of Spenser’s humanism. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 – page 286 7. What sort of poetry does Sonnet 130 mock or criticize? What message about love is implied in this criticism? 8. Provide THREE examples of “negative similes,” or what the speaker says his beloved is not. 9. Carefully consider this question: What does the poet’s description of the woman he loves reveal about his opinion of her? Support your answer with evidence from the poem. .