Thursday, January 31

Poetry - 

EQ: What is the difference between an Italian sonnet and a Shakespearean sonnet?


SONNET
a poem of 14 lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes (usually 10 syllables per line)

COUPLET
two lines, one immediately after the other, that contain end rhyme

END RHYME
rhyme that occurs at the end of two or more lines of poetry

IAMBIC PENTAMETER
a poetic meter that is made up of 5 stressed syllables each followed by an unstressed syllable

METER 
a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry 

VOLTA
A volta is the "turning point" in a poem, a moment of dramatic shift in tone or theme of the poem. 



  
So, now we know the parts of a sonnet. Let's examine the differences between the Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet and the British (Shakespearean) sonnet.  Take a look at the following Prezi to discover the differences:
The Italians vs. The British

Journal 6
For each poem, write a 1/2 page analysis that includes:
1) Is this sonnet an Italian or British style sonnet?
2) What poetic devices are present and how do they affect the speed and rhythm of the poem?
3) Where is the turn and what is the conceptual relationship shown by the structure?

 1

Remember

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
Remember me when I am gone away,
         Gone far away into the silent land;
         When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
         You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
         Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
         And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
         For if the darkness and corruption leave
         A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
         Than that you should remember and be sad.

 2

Music Box

BY JORGE LUIS BORGES
TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY TONY BARNSTONE
Music of Japan. Parsimoniously
from the water clock the drops unfold
in lazy honey or ethereal gold
that over time reiterates a weave
eternal, fragile, enigmatic, bright.
I fear that every one will be the last.
They are a yesterday come from the past.
But from what shrine, from what mountain’s slight
garden, what vigils by an unknown sea,
and from what modest melancholy, from
what lost and rediscovered afternoon
do they arrive at their far future: me?
Who knows? No matter. When I hear it play
I am. I want to be. I bleed away.

3

Psalm 150

BY MARY SIDNEY HERBERT COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE
Oh, laud the Lord, the God of hosts commend,
       Exalt his pow’r, advance his holiness:
       With all your might lift his almightiness;
Your greatest praise upon his greatness spend.
Make trumpet’s noise in shrillest notes ascend;
       Make lute and lyre his loved fame express;
       Him let the pipe, him let the tabret bless,
Him organ’s breath, that winds or waters lend.
Let ringing timbrels so his honor sound,
       Let sounding cymbals so his glory ring,
       That in their tunes such melody be found
As fits the pomp of most triumphant king.
Conclude: by all that air or life enfold,
       Let high Jehovah highly be extolled.

4

Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
   And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
   As any she belied with false compare.

 5 

Sonnet 19: When I consider how my light is spent

BY JOHN MILTON
When I consider how my light is spent,
   Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
   And that one Talent which is death to hide
   Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
   My true account, lest he returning chide;
   “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
   I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
   Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best
   Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
   And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest:
   They also serve who only stand and wait.”

6

To the Poet Before Battle

BY IVOR GURNEY
Now, youth, the hour of thy dread passion comes;
Thy lovely things must all be laid away;
And thou, as others, must face the riven day
Unstirred by rattle of the rolling drums,
Or bugles' strident cry. When mere noise numbs
The sense of being, the sick soul doth sway,
Remember thy great craft's honour, that they may say
Nothing in shame of poets. Then the crumbs
Of praise the little versemen joyed to take
Shall be forgotten; then they must know we are,
For all our skill in words, equal in might
And strong of mettle as those we honoured; make
The name of poet terrible in just war,
And like a crown of honour upon the fight.

7

The Professor

BY JOSHUA MEHIGAN
I get there early and I find a chair.
I squeeze my plastic cup of wine. I nod.
I maladroitly eat a pretzel rod
and second an opinion I don’t share.
I think: whatever else I am, I’m there.
Afterwards, I escape across the quad
into fresh air, alone again, thank god.
Nobody cares. They’re quite right not to care.

I can’t go home. Even my family
is thoroughly contemptuous of me.
I look bad. I’m exactly how I look.
These days I never read, but no one does,
and, anyhow, I proved how smart I was.
Everything I know is from a book.

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