EWRT 30Class 4

AGENDATerms 17-23 Discussion: Sonnet

Lecture: Form and Structure: Sestina/Villanelle:

Guided Writing: Sestina/Villanelle

Terms 17-2317. Shakespearian or English Sonnet

A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter. The Shakespearean or English sonnet is arranged as three quatrains and a final couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg.

18. The Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter. It is divided into two parts: an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet, rhyming abba abba cde cde or abba abba cd cd cd (or other combination of cde).

19.StanzaA division or unit of a poem that is repeated in the same form--either with similar or identical patterns or rhyme and meter, or with variations from one stanza to another.

20.CoupletA pair of rhymed lines that may or may not constitute a separate stanza in a poem. Shakespeare's sonnets end in rhymed couplets, as in "For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings."

21.QuatrainA four-line stanza in a poem, the first four lines and the second four lines in a Petrarchan sonnet. A Shakespearean sonnet contains three quatrains followed by a couplet.

22.OctaveAn eight-line unit, which may constitute a stanza; or a section of a poem, as in the octave of a sonnet.

23.SestetA six-line unit of verse constituting a stanza or section of a poem; the last six lines of an Italian sonnet. Examples: Petrarch's "If it is not love, then what is it that I feel," and Frost's "Design."

The Review 5 minutes

12.Rhyme13.Feminine

Rhyme14.Internal

Rhyme15.Slant Rhyme16.Eye Rhyme17.Identical

Rhyme

18.English Sonnet19.Italian Sonnet20.Stanza21.Couplet22.Quatrain23.Octave24.Sestet

Discussion Subject: 10 minutesSonnets: Share your work. Identify both sonnet and poetry conventions!

Line number Rhyme Scheme Structure

Quatrains Couplets Octave/sestet

Meter/Feet A turn or volta

Rhyme (of all types)

Metaphor/Simile Alliteration Assonance Onomatopoeia

Lecture SubjectThe Villanelle

Dylan Thomas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2cgcx-GJTQ

Villanelle Conventions 19 lines

5 stanzas of three lines; final stanza of four

It has two rhyme sounds: A and B It has two repeating lines

The first repeating line appears as line 1 (A1) and repeats in lines 6, 12, and 18.

The second repeating line appears as line 3 (A2) and repeats in lines 9, 15, and 19.

St. 1 A1 (first repeating line or refrain) b A2 (second repeating line or refrain)St. 2 a b A1 (repeat of line 1)St. 3 a b A2 (repeat of line 3)St. 4 a b A1 (repeat of line 1)St. 5 a b A2 (repeat of line 3)St. 6 a b A1 (repeat of line 1) A2 (repeat of line 3)

Pattern

St. 1A1 Do not go gentle into that good night, b A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.St. 2a b A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,St. 3a b A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light. St. 4a b A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,St. 5a b A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.St. 6a b A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,

A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

St. 1A1 Do not go gentle into that good night, b Old age should burn and rave at close of day; A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.St. 2a Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

b Because their words had forked no lightning they A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,St. 3a Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright b Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light. St. 4a Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, b And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,St. 5a Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

b Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.St. 6a And you, my father, there on the sad height,

b Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,

A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

St. 1A1 Do not go gentle into that good night, b Old age should burn and rave at close of day; A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.St. 2a Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

b Because their words had forked no lightning they A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,St. 3a Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright b Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light. St. 4a Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, b And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,St. 5a Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

b Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.St. 6a And you, my father, there on the sad height,

b Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,

A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Villanelles have no set rhythm or line length but the lines are usually even. Iambic pentameter (de-TROIT x 5) is a common rhythm for serious villanelles. The Thomas poem is written in iambic pentameter (do NOT go GENtle INto THAT good NIGHT). The trochee rhythm (BOS-ton) also works well. Eight to ten syllables per line is the most common length but shorter or longer lines are okay too. The main goal is to keep the rhythm regular. For a light verse villanelle, anapest feet create a tripping rhythm ( te-te-TUM, ser-e-NADE). Or use dactyl feet for a marching or galloping effect (TUM-te-te, HAR-mo-ny).

Guided WritingVillanelle

Drag picture to placeholder or click icon to add

1. Choose a subject. W. H. Auden, when asked whether the form or content came first,

replied, “At any given time, I have two things on my mind—a theme that interests me and a problem of verbal form. The theme looks for the right form; the form looks for the right theme. When the two come together, I am able to start writing.” 

Some subjects or themes that lend themselves well to the villanelles: Duality, for example two differing points of view, or two unlike

things or people forced together. Consider a poem about Christmas in a prison or care home. Note the duality: happy time, sad place.

Ironic subjects. Actor, writer and poetry aficionado Stephen Fry describes many villanelles as consisting of “a rueful, ironic reiteration of pain or fatalism.”

Humorous subjects—especially those rooted in irony.

Choose a subject!Add duality

1. Good and bad aspects of an early memory.

2. Your first kiss (sweet but disastrous).

3. The pain of betrayal by a good friend.

4. Your first pet (love and death).5. Your parents (bad or good).6. Your siblings.7. Your children.8. Your first love (what it might

have been).9. Your past love (broken heart)10. Your current love.11. Lust.

13. Your favorite TV show or book

14. Your Hobbies

15. Celebrity news story

16. Politics (the left? The right? An

event?)

17. School (Drama)

18. A death in the family.

19. A death of a friend.

20. The scariest moment of your life.

21. The happiest moment of your life.

22. A moment which made you angry.

2. Write the two refrain lines.

This most important step of the villanelle-writing process will largely determine the success of your poem. When composing the two repeating lines keep the following in mind:

The end words of the two lines rhyme. The sound on which they end will also be the ‘a’ rhyme sound in the non-repeating lines. Therefore choose end words with a rhyme sound that’s easy to match.

The lines should resonate with a meaning that has the potential to enlarge as the poem progresses.

The lines should be musical and pleasing to the ear. The two lines need to come together effectively at the end of the poem.

Try beginning one or both refrain lines with a verb.“Technically the trick of it seems to be to find a refrain pair that is capable of run-ons, ambiguity, and ironic reversal” says Fry.

Draft multiple (4 or 5) rhyming couplets that express your feeling or idea, or the heart of your concern.

Pick the couplet that combines originality and expressiveness with some flexibility in the way those lines could be used in combination with others.

“Technically the trick of it seems to be to find a refrain pair that is capable of run-ons, ambiguity, and ironic reversal” says Fry.

Together, the two lines should form a sentence or phrase that will work to conclude your poem, but each must also stand on its own or be flexible enough to be used with other sentences or phrases.

2. Write the two refrain lines (continued)

3. Write the villanelle form and enter the repeating lines

St. 1 A1 (first repeating line or refrain) b A2 (second repeating line or refrain)St. 2 a b A1 (repeat of line 1)St. 3 a b A2 (repeat of line 3)St. 4 a b A1 (repeat of line 1)St. 5 a b A2 (repeat of line 3)St. 6 a b A1 (repeat of line 1) A2 (repeat of line 3)

4. Decide on your “b” rhyme sound.

Again choose a sound that has lots of rhyme potential and that is different enough from rhyme ‘a’ to provide a pleasing contrast.

If you need some help finding rhymes, you can always use a free on-line rhyming dictionary for some help.

RhymerRhymezone

.

5. Make lists of words that rhyme with the two sounds you have chosen, particularly choosing words that will work with your theme

A words B words1 23

6. Compose the additional lines of your poem according to the rhyme scheme, using ideas suggested by the words on your list.

Fill in your poem

Make changes to enhance and add meaning, not simply for the sake of variety. “The repetition cannot be static,” says Frances Mayes. “Each time a repeating line appears it should have added significance.”

If this way of composing a poem seems contrived and non-poetic, be reassured that you’re not the first person to feel this way. Despite the seemingly un-poetic method of composing, villanelles often appear spontaneous. Strive for such an effect, even if it takes much crossing out, agonizing over, and rewriting lines to get exactly what you’re after.

Once you’re familiar with writing by-the-rules villanelles, you may be tempted to join poets who have written villanelles that break the rules. Some poets leave out or add stanzas, rhyme only some of the lines, or none at all, or even write in free verse. For this assignment, please try to conform to the rules.

7. Revise

Use enjambment sometimes, so that your repeated lines are less obvious.

Change the punctuation to alter meaning. Feel free to slightly modify the lines that you

set up for your original couplet. Then, repeat this modification throughout

the poem (if you are following the form of strict repetition), or use the modifications to reflect something (such as a progression of internal emotions).

Tips

ForThe Sestina

Elizabeth Bishop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JbffGoIi30&t=16s

Sestina ConventionsThe sestina makes no demands on the poet in terms of meter or rhyme or foot. Its requirements border on the mathematical and its prescriptions are mainly syntactical.  In Questions of Possibility: Contemporary Poetry and Poetic Form, David Caplan explains,

The opening stanza introduces six endwords […] which repeat through the six sestets. Starting with the second sestet, each stanza duplicates the previous stanza’s endwords in the following order: last, first, fifth, second, fourth, then third. […] By the poem’s end, each end word appears in all six lines. Finally […] the concluding [stanza] features two endwords in each of its three lines, one as an endword and one in the middle of the line (18).

Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop

123456

123456

123456

ABCDEF

FAEBDC

CFDABE

Classic Sestina Pattern

Or another combination

Sestina: Final Stanza

F EB DC A

Guided Writing

Drag picture to placeholder or click icon to add

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)

I am an invisible man. —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952) The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.  —L.

P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953) This is the saddest story I have ever heard. —Ford Madox Ford,

The Good Soldier (1915) All this happened, more or less. —Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-

Five (1969) Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space. —

Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye (1988) You better not never tell nobody but God. —Alice Walker, The

Color Purple (1982) It was love at first sight. —Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961) Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had

turned into the wrong person. —Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups (2001)

Choose a topic from great first novel lines

Choose at least some words that several different meanings: ex. "mean”

Choose words that can be used as either nouns, verbs, or adjectives: ex. "swell”

Choose one word that is so innocuous it can be put practically anywhere. Prepositions are good for this: ex. "down”

Choose one polysyllabic word that is highly specific to your subject matter. (This will be the hardest one to rotate but it will contrast artistically with the others: ex. “Medicine”

Choose a word that either rhymes or alliterates with one of your other words: ex. “well”

Choose a power-word, which will likely end your poem: ex “die”

Choosing End Words

Sore Throat Sestina

Choose concrete nouns to include in your poemDemon

BugVirus

NeckThroatTonsils

MumpsScarlet FeverStrep Throat

HusbandInternetDoctor

These will be good descriptors in the poem

—Here is a list of the endwords: mean, swell, down, medicine, well and die.

At this point, you don’t have to decide the order of the other words because you are going to write the end of your poem first.

The trick to avoiding bad endings in a sestina is to write a devastatingly brilliant ending and then work toward it. You can always rewrite it if it turns out not to fit your needs.

Oh don't be mean! There must be medicineI can put down this throat to make me wellor it will swell and swell until I die.

Write the Ending First

Start at the beginning now!

This morning I woke up as if a meandemon in the night had slithered downmy neck. My tonsils had begun to swell.I moaned; I coughed; I drank some medicinenaively thinking I would soon feel well.Ten minutes on I still thought I might die.

First Stanza

ABCDEF

Now your order has been determined!

Second Stanza

"Oh come on silly. You're not going to die,"my husband said. He wasn't being mean.The thing is, I'm the one who's always well.He isn't used to seeing me go downwith nasty bugs or swallow medicine."Soon," he said, "Once more you'll feel just swell."Note: try and avoid end-stopping all the lines, another common beginner's mistake. Note that the first line continues into the second. Also, line four flows into five.

FAEBDC

But my left tonsil continued to swellall morning. I knew no-one ever diedof a sore throat, and yet no medicinewas soothing it. What could this symptom mean?I started feeling more and more cast downand wondered if I would ever get well.Note the use of "swell” as a verb in this stanza.

Note that “die” changed to "died" in this stanza. All but the most purist of sestina-writers would agree that this is acceptable.

C F D A B E

Third Stanza

Only one thing to do: consult the wellof information on the Internet. That swellingcyberspace would help me pin this down(or tell me just how long before I die).I googled sore throat symptom, and the meaningof this popped out on medicine.comThe author has used "swelling" for "swell" and "meaning" for "mean.” She has also really pushed the boundaries by adding ".com" to "medicine.”

Fourth Stanza

ECBFAD

It could be Mumps! And there's no medicineto take for that. Just waiting to get wellbut all the time in pain. What kind of mean,sadistic virus is this? This is swell:it could be Strep Throat. I could even dieof Scarlet Fever. Now I'm feeling down.

So in ten minutes I am going downto see the doctor. Maybe medicinewill stop me feeling like I want to die.Oh to be strong, and tonsil-less, and well!Oh for a pill to reduce this nasty swelling.Oh for someone to tell me what this means.

Stanzas five and six

DEACFB

BDFECA

Now look back at the end stanza you wrote in the beginning:

Oh don't be mean! There must be medicineI can put down this throat to make me wellor it will swell and swell until I die.Take a moment to revise:

And if the mean Doc says no medicinehe can pour down this throat will make me well,but time. Oh swell! All this pain and I can't die.

A DB EC F

Thanks to Anna Evans, The Barefoot Muse, for help with writing a Sestina.

Post #4: S

estina or

Villanelle

Reading: Free Verse

Study Term

s 1-23