Compare the Italian sonnet and the English sonnet as two varieties of one poetic form. Read and comment on one of the sonnets by Shakespeare

The structure of a typical Italian sonnet of this time included two parts that together formed a compact form of "argument". First, the octave (two quatrains), forms the "proposition", which describes a "problem", or "question", followed by a sestet (two tercets), which proposes a "resolution". Typically, the ninth line initiates what is called the "turn", or "volta", which signals the move from proposition to resolution. Even in sonnets that don't strictly follow the problem/resolution structure, the ninth line still often marks a "turn" by signaling a change in the tone, mood, or stance of the poem.

Later, the a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a pattern became the standard for Italian sonnets. For the sestet there were two different possibilities: c-d-e-c-d-e and c-d-c-c-d-c. In time, other variants on this rhyming scheme were introduced, such as c-d-c-d-c-d.

In English, both English type (Shakespearean) sonnets and Italian type (Petrarchan) sonnets are traditionally written in iambic pentameter lines.

The first known sonnets in English, written by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, used this Italian scheme, as did sonnets by later English poets including John Milton, Thomas Gray, William Wordsworth and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Early twentieth-century American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay also wrote most of her sonnets using the Italian form.

This example, On His Blindness by Milton, gives a sense of the Italian rhyming scheme:

When I consider how my light is spent (a)

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, (b)

And that one talent which is death to hide, (b)

Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent (a)

To serve therewith my Maker, and present (a)

My true account, lest he returning chide; (b)

"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" (b)

I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent (a)

That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need (c)

Either man's work or his own gifts; who best (d)

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state (e)

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed (c)

And post o'er land and ocean without rest; (d)

They also serve who only stand and wait." (e)

Date: 2016-06-07; view: 504; Нарушение авторских прав