SONNETS
We do not know when Shakespeare composed his sonnets, though it is possible that he wrote them over a period of several years, beginning, perhaps, in 1592 or 1593. Some of them were being circulated in manuscript form among his friends as early as 1598, and in 1599 two of them—138 and 144—were published in The Passionate Pilgrim, a collection of verses by several authors. The sonnets as we know them were certainly completed no later than 1609, the year they were published by Thomas Thorpe under the title Shakespeare's Sonnets. Most scholars believe that Thorpe acquired the manuscript on which he based his edition from someone other than the author. Few believe that Shakespeare supervised the publication of this manuscript, for the text is riddled with errors. Nevertheless, Thorpe's 1609 edition is the basis for all modern texts of the sonnets.
With only a few exceptions—Sonnets 99, 126, and 145—Shakespeare's verses follow the established English form of the sonnet. Each is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter, comprising four sections: three quatrains, or groups of four lines, followed by a couplet of two lines. Traditionally, a different—though related—idea is expressed in each quatrain, and the argument or theme of the poem is summarized or generalized in the concluding couplet. It should be noted that many of Shakespeare's couplets do not have this conventional effect. Shakespeare did, however, employ the traditional English sonnet rhyme-scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, taken together, are frequently described as a sequence, and this is generally divided into two sections. Sonnets 1-126 focus on a young man and the speaker's friendship with him, and Sonnets 127-52 focus on the speaker's relationship with a woman. However, in only a few of the poems in the first group is it clear that the person being addressed is a male. And most of the poems in the sequence as a whole are not direct addresses to another person. The two concluding sonnets, 153 and 154, are free translations or adaptations of classical verses about Cupid; some critics believe they serve a specific purpose—though they disagree about what this may be—but many others view them as perfunctory.
The English sonnet sequence reached the height of its popularity in the 1590s, when the posthumous publication of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (1591) was widely celebrated and led other English poets to create their own sonnet collections. All of these, including Shakespeare's, are indebted to some degree to the literary conventions established by the Canzoniere, a sonnet sequence composed by the fourteenth-century Italian poet Petrarch.
The principal topics of twentieth-century critical commentary on the sonnets, however, are their themes and poetic style. Analyses of formal elements in the poems include examinations of the rhetorical devices, syntax, and diction Shakespeare employed here. The multiple and indefinite associations of his words and phrases have proved especially intriguing—and problematic—for scholars as well as general readers. The complexity and ambiguity of Shakespeare's figurative language is also a central critical issue, as is the remarkable diversity of tone and mood in the sequence.
Many of Shakespeare's themes are conventional sonnet topics, such as love and beauty, and the related motifs of time and mutability. But Shakespeare treats these themes in his own, distinctive fashion—most notably by addressing the poems of love and praise not to a fair maiden but instead to a young man; and by including a second subject of passion: a woman of questionable attractiveness and virtue. Critics have frequently called attention to Shakespeare's complex and paradoxical representation of love in the sonnets. They have also discussed at length the poet-speaker's claim that he will immortalize the young man's beauty in his verses, thereby defying the destructiveness of time. The themes of friendship and betrayal of friendship are also important critical issues, as is the nature of the relationship between the speaker and the youth. The ambiguous eroticism of the sonnets has elicited varying responses, with some commentators asserting that the relationship between the two men is asexual and others contending that it is sexual.
Because these lyrics are passionate, intense, and emotionally vivid, over the centuries many readers and commentators have been convinced that they must have an autobiographical basis. There is, however, no evidence that this is so. Nevertheless, there has been endless speculation about what these sonnets may tell us about their creator, and researchers have attempted to identify the persons who were the original or historical models for the persons the speaker refers to and addresses. The fact remains, however, that we do not know to what degree Shakespeare's personal experiences are reflected in his sonnets; nor do we know with any measure of certainty whether the persons depicted in these poems are based on specific individuals or are solely the product of Shakespeare's observation, imagination, and understanding of the human heart.
Contradictions and uncertainties are implicit in Shakespeare's sonnets. Their complex language and multiple perspectives have given rise to a number of different interpretations, all of which may at times seem valid—even when they contradict each other. Few critics today read the sonnets as personal allegory. Indeed, most commentators assert that speculation about what these verses may imply about Shakespeare's life, morals, and sexuality is a useless exercise. The speaker is as closely identified with each reader as he is with the writer who created him. His confused and ambiguous expressions of thought and emotion heighten our own ambivalent feelings about matters that concern us all: love, friendship, jealousy, hope, and despair.
reading materials FOR OUR SEMINARS:
WHAT'S IN A SONNET?
by Melissa J. Sites
http://www.rc.umd.edu/sites/default/RCOldSite/www/rchs/sonnet.htm
by Melissa J. Sites
A sonnet is a one-stanza poem of fourteen lines, written in iambic
pentameter. One way to describe a verse line is to talk about how many
stressed and unstressed syllables are in the line. A simple grouping of
syllables, some stressed, some unstressed, is called a foot. The
iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Pentameter means
there are five feet in the line. "Iambic Pentameter," then, means a
line of ten syllables, which alternates unstressed and stressed syllables
according to the iambic rhythm.
The rhyme scheme of a sonnet refers to the pattern
formed by the rhyming words at the end of each line. Each end-rhyme is assigned
a letter, and the fourteen letters assigned to the sonnet describe the rhyme
scheme. Different kinds of sonnets have different rhyme schemes.
The Petrarchan or Italian sonnet, named after the fourteenth
century Italian poet Petrarch, has the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA CDECDE. [You might
imagine the end-rhymes represented by the letters to be something like cat log
hog bat, rat bog tog fat, long neck noose, song heck loose]. The first eight
lines, which all end in either rhyme A [at] or B [og], form the octave.
The last six lines, which end in C [ong], D [eck], or E [oose], form the sestet.
Variant rhyme schemes for the sestet also include CDCDCD and CDEDCE. There is
usually a pause or break in thought between the octave and sestet called
the volta, or turn. Traditionally, one main thought or problem is
set out in the octave and brought to a resolution in the sestet.
The Shakespearean or English sonnet was actually developed in
the sixteenth century by the Earl of Surrey, but is named after Shakespeare
because of his great sonnet sequence (a series of sonnets all exploring the
same theme) printed in 1609 . The Shakespearean sonnet has the rhyme scheme
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, forming three quatrains (four lines in a
group) and a closing couplet (two rhymed lines). The problem
is usually developed in the first three quatrains, each quatrain with a new
idea growing out of the previous one. Sometimes the first two quatrains are
devoted to the same thought, resembling the octave of the Petrarchan sonnet,
and followed by a similar volta. Most strikingly unlike the Petrarchan version,
the Shakespearean sonnet is brought to a punchy resolution in the epigrammatic
final couplet.
The Spenserian sonnet is a variation of the English sonnet with the
rhyme scheme ABAB BCBC CDCD EE, in which the quatrains are linked by a
continuation of one end-rhyme from the previous quatrain. The Miltonic sonnet
is a Petrarchan sonnet which omits the volta. Wordsworth often used the
Petrarchan form, but changed the octave to ABBA ACCA because it is harder to
find rhyming words in English than in Italian.
http://www.rc.umd.edu/sites/default/RCOldSite/www/rchs/sonnet.htm
Understanding Iambic Pentameter
How to Scan a Poem
WATCH THIS VIDEO:
Listen to Sonnet XXXIII:
Analyze Sonnet XXXIII:
SONNET 33
SONNET 33
SONNET 33
SONNET 33
Read S.Marshak's translation. Is there anything wrong with it?
XXXIII
Я наблюдал, как солнечный восход
Ласкает горы взором благосклонным,
Потом улыбку шлёт лугам зеленым
И золотит поверхность бледных вод.
Но часто позволяет небосвод
Слоняться тучам перед светлым троном.
Они ползут над миром омрачённым,
Лишая землю царственных щедрот.
Так солнышко моё взошло на час,
Меня дарами щедро осыпая.
Подкралась туча хмурая, слепая,
И нежный свет любви моей угас.
Но не ропщу я на печальный
жребий, —
Бывают тучи на земле, как в небе.
Я наблюдал, как солнечный восход
Ласкает горы взором благосклонным,
Потом улыбку шлёт лугам зеленым
И золотит поверхность бледных вод.
Но часто позволяет небосвод
Слоняться тучам перед светлым троном.
Они ползут над миром омрачённым,
Лишая землю царственных щедрот.
Так солнышко моё взошло на час,
Меня дарами щедро осыпая.
Подкралась туча хмурая, слепая,
И нежный свет любви моей угас.
Но не ропщу я на печальный жребий, —
Бывают тучи на земле, как в небе.
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