Sonnets

 What is a Sonnet? 

• Sonnet is a 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter.

• The Italian poet Petrarch is the inventor of sonnets (1304-1374) who expressed his unrequited love for the woman Laura in his sonnets.

• Sonnets include a standard format with 3 Quatrains (4 lines)  and 1 Couplet  (2 lines). 

What is a Shakespearean Sonnet? 

• William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. 

• He wrote the sonnets between 1593 - 1609.  

- Sometimes some sonnets have a different rhyming pattern. 

Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the Petrarchan sonnet to England in the early sixteenth century.

Characters in a sonnet

• The poet (Shakespeare)
• The Fair Youth (Earl of Southampton) 
• The Rival Poet (Nen Johnson)
• The Dark Lady 

- Sonnets have a story and a theme.

- Sonnets starts with exposing the idea and then there is an inciting of the incident, the midpoint of the poem, the rising action, the climax and lastly the Denouement.  

Characteristics of a Sonnet

• Rhetoric: Asking a question without expecting an answer.
• Anaphora: Repeating the same phrase. 
• Antitheses: Contrasting ideas or images. Ex: Day & Night
• Alliteration: Using words with the same beginning sound. 
• Themes: love, hate, jealousy, despair, etc...

• https://poets.org/glossary/sonnet
• https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/sonnet