English Sonnet

1、English literature -English SonnetSonnet:n Sonnet is one of the most conventional and influential forms of poetry in Europe. A sonnet is a lyric invariably of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme.three major kinds Shakespearean ,English or Elizabethan s

2、onnetPetrarchan or Italian sonnetSpenserian sonnetShakespearean Sonnet:Also called Elizabethan or English sonnet. This sonnet form is perfected by Shakespeare . It is structured of three quatrains and a terminal couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef ggPetrarchan SonnetAl

3、so called Italian sonnet. This sonnet form originated in Italy in the 13th C and was consummated by Francesco Petrarch, a crowned laureate. This form contains an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba and sestet of various rhyme patterns such as cdecde or cdcdcd Spenserian SonnetA Spenserian sonnet

4、form comprises three quatrains and a couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme abab bcbc cdcd ee. This sonnet form is considered by some a variation of Shakespearean sonnet. Some poets write sonnets on a single subject or under one controlling idea and thus create a sonnet sequence or sonne

5、t cyclepShakespeares sonnets are very different from Shakespeares plays, but they do contain dramatic elements and an overall sense of story.p Each of the poems deals with a highly personal theme, and each can be taken on its own or in relation to the poems around it. pThe sonnets have the feel of a

6、utobiographical poems, but we dont know whether they deal with real events or not, because no one knows enough about Shakespeares life to say whether or not they deal with real events and feelings, so we tend to refer to the voice of the sonnets as the speaker-as though he were a dramatic creation l

7、ike Hamlet or King Lear.Two narrative poems and 154 sonnetstwo parts the first part 1126 to Mr. W.Hthe second part 127152 to Dark Ladyan unnamed young nobleman, whom the speaker loves very muchmysterious woman, whom the speaker loves, hates, and lusts for simultaneouslypThe speaker opens the poem wi

8、th a question addressed to the beloved: Shall I compare thee to a summers day? The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. pIn line 2, the speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from the summers day: he is more lovely and more temperate. Summers days tend toward extr

9、emes: they are shaken by rough winds;p in them, the sun (the eye of heaven) often shines too hot, or “too dim”. pAnd summer is fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as every fair from fair sometime declines. pThe final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved

10、differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever (Thy eternal summer shall not fade.) and never die. pIn the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloveds beauty will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it will live

11、 as long as men can breathe or eyes can see.pThis sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeares sonnets;p It may be the most famous lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeares works, only lines such as To be or not to be and Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? are better-know

12、n. pThis is not to say that it is at all the best or most interesting or most beautiful of the sonnets; but the simplicity and loveliness of its praise of the beloved has guaranteed its place.pOn the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to u

13、npleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and temperate. pSummer is incidentally personified as the eye of heaven with its gold complexion; the imagery throughout is simple and unaffected, with the darling buds of May giving way to the eternal summer, which the speaker

14、 promises the beloved.p The language, too, is comparatively unadorned for the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly every line is its own self-contained clause-almost every line ends with some punctuation, which effects a pause.pSonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnet

15、s not to explicitly encourage the young man to have children. The procreation sequence of the first 17 sonnets ended with the speakers realization that the young man might not need children to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker writes at the end of Sonnet 17, in my rhyme. Sonnet 18

16、, then, is the first rhyme-the speakers first attempt to preserve the young mans beauty for all time. pAn important theme of the sonnet (as it is an important theme throughout much of the sequence) is the power of the speakers poem to defy time and last forever, carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future g