Sonnets

Drayton’s Sonnet 1Into these Loves who but for Passion looks,At this first sight here let him lay them byAnd seek elsewhere, in turning other books,Which better may his labor satisfy.No far-fetched sigh shall ever wound my breast,Love from mine eye a tear shall never wring,Nor in Ah me's my whining sonnets drest;A libertine, fantasticly I sing.My verse is the true image of my mind,Ever in motion, still desiring change,And as thus to variety inclined,So in all humours sportively I range.My Muse is rightly of the English strain,That cannot long one fashion entertain.I

• The sonnet usually presents a problem or lament in the first sets(8)of lines and the last 6 lines resolve it or ask other questions.

• They are not all love poems, they can be about life in general, about something funny that makes you laugh or some big question you are thinking about.

Rules of the Sonnet

• A sonnet is a poem in 14 lines.• There are different forms of sonnets, but the traditional

forms are the Spanish and the English sonnet.• The Spanish sonnet uses the a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a rhyme

pattern for the first two quatrains. For the sestet(last 6 lines) there are two different possibilities: c-d-e-c-d-e and c-d-c-c-d-c.

• The rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg in English Sonnets; the Spenserian sonnet is abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee.

Shakespeare’s 5th SonnetWhen forty winters shall besiege thy brow,And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now,Will be a totter'd weed of small worth held: Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies,Where all the treasure of thy lusty days; To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes,Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use,If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mineShall sum my count, and make my old excuse,'Proving his beauty by succession thine!This were to be new made when thou art old,And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.

This sonnet is in abab, cdcd, efef, gg rhyme scheme!

A Modern SonnetThe Carpenter by Kim Bridgford To be raised by one who built things was a gift. To be raised by one who saw that out of air A room was made, or pieces of a chair. The world was known by measurement and heft. As he grew up, he learned the way to touch, As if the world held secrets in its clutch, Which he would then reveal. He grew to see That in the commonplace there's mystery. A tree would speak of unbuilt shapes within it The way that Jesus knew the infinite. He worked in words, and handled them like wood, Creating lasting work that he called good. He shaped the clouds into his father's face For those who had before seen only space.

This sonnet is in the abba, ccdd, eeff, gg rhyme scheme

The Golden Years

All I do these drawn-out days is sit in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge where there are no pheasant to be seen and last time I looked, no ridge. I could drive over to Quail Falls and spend the day there playing bridge, but the lack of a falls and the absence of quail would just remind me of Pheasant Ridge. I know a widow at Fox Run and another with a condo at Smokey Ledge. One of them smokes, and neither can run, so I'll stick to the pledge I made to Midge. Who frightened the fox and bulldozed the ledge? I ask in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge.

Into My OwnRobert Frost Sonnet

One of my wishes is that those dark trees, So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze, Were not, as 'twere, the merest mask of gloom, But stretched away unto the edge of doom. I should not be withheld but that some day Into their vastness I should steal away, Fearless of ever finding open land, Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand. I do not see why I should e'er turn back, Or those should not set forth upon my track To overtake me, who should miss me here And long to know if still I held them dear. They would not find me changed from him they knew— Only more sure of all I thought was true.

Rhyme scheme: aabb, ccdd, eeff, gg

Browning Sonnet 14If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say "I love her for her smile--her look--her way Of speaking gently,--for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"— For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee,--and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,-- A creature might forget to weep, who bore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! But love me for love's sake, that evermore Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

This sonnet uses the more Italian rhyme scheme… abba, bccb, dedede

Sonnets--Unrealities. III.e e cummings

it is at moments after i have dreamedof the rare entertainment of your eyes,when (being fool to fancy) i have deemedwith your peculiar mouth my heart made wise;at moments when the glassy darkness holds

the genuine apparition of your smile(it was through tears always) and silence mouldssuch strangeness as was mine a little while;moments when my once more illustrious armsare filled with fascination, when my breastwears the intolerant brightness of your charms:one pierced moment whiter than the rest--turning from the tremendous lie of sleepi watch the roses of the day grow deep.

Cummings uses the normal abab,cdcd, efef, gg rhyme scheme, but he doesn’t follow the usual sonnet form.