English 12 / Unit 2: Shakespeare and the Renaissance
2.2 The Sonnet
Notes
A sonnet is a 14-line poem in iambic pentameter (ten syllables per line, in five unstressed-stressed pairs).
- Petrarchan (Italian): an octave (8 lines, ABBAABBA) poses a problem, and a sestet (6 lines) answers it.
- Shakespearean (English): three quatrains (ABAB CDCD EFEF) and a final couplet (GG).
- The volta is the turn in thought, often at line 9 or in the final couplet.
- Example: Sonnet 18 begins "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate." The turn comes at line 9: "But thy eternal summer shall not fade," since poetry will preserve the beloved.
- Sonnet 130 mocks flattering love poems: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun." Its couplet claims the speaker's love is as rare as any woman praised with false comparisons.
Practice
Which rhyme scheme describes a Shakespearean sonnet?
Three quatrains and a rhyming couplet make the English sonnet.
What is the volta in a sonnet?
The volta shifts the poem's argument, often at line 9 or the couplet.
"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; / Coral is far more red than her lips' red." What is the speaker doing?
Sonnet 130 mocks conventional comparisons, then argues real love needs no false praise.
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