Poetry

Question 1

What do you know about the sonnet ‘Whoso List To Hunt’ by Sir Thomas Wyatt?

Answer 1

• Petrarchan sonnet
• iambic pentameter
• rhyme scheme: ABBA ABBA CDD CEE
• extended metaphor of a hunt to represent a romantic pursuit
• addresses reader directly in line 1+9

Sonnet always has 14 lines

Deer represents unrequited love and unattainable/unreachable desire, Bro was in love with Anne Boleyn “Noli me tangere” (=do not touch me in Latin) is written on the collar of the deers neck which kind of signifies the loyalty of the deer to another

Question 2

What do you know about the sonnet ‘To the Moon/Sonnet 31’ by Sir Philip Sidney?

Answer 2

• Petrarchan sonnet
• Iambic pentameter
• rhyme scheme: ABAB ABAB CDCD EE
• Moon as his companion in suffering bc Stella is unreachable
• 4 questions about Stella and himself

constancy in love is undervalued on earth and maybe even in the heavens

1: first question aimed at those who regard his love as a foolish act
2&3: aimed at Stella she is exactly the conventional proud beauty who despises the lover she deliberately attracts
4: aimed at himself, doubting if he is grateful
Stella is his beloved Lady Rich

Question 3

What do you know about the ‘Sonnet XV/15’ by Edmund Spenser?

Answer 3

• Spenserian sonnet
• rhyme scheme: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE
• iambic pentameter
• compares beauty of his wife ‘Elizabeth Boyle’ to riches of the world
• ‘But’ in last sentence -> volta
• Text is a blazon

implies colonialism and gives impression how rare this woman is

blazon (= verses which dwelt upon and detailed the various parts of a woman’s body: a sort of catalogue of her physical attributes)

Question 4

What do you know about ‘Sonnet XVIII/18’ by William Shakespeare?

Answer 4

• Shakespearan sonnet
• rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
• iambic pentameter
• captures and preserves beauty
• poetry grants a kind of immortality, making his beloved eternal
• Summer is compared to addressee
• Summer day is metonymy for whole season of summer (most beautiful thing)

English sonnet: 3 quatrains + couplet

‘His eternal summer shall not fade’ -> a poetic convention
‘so long as men can breathe’ -> metapoetic level (something you cant destroy)

Question 5

What do you know about ‘Sonnet CXXX/130’ by William Shakespeare?

Answer 5

• Shakespearan sonnet
• rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
• iambic pentameter
• doesn’t exaggerate with his comparisons (critic to other poets)
• she is just as good as any woman
• lots of insults but not real
• text is a mock-blazon
• misogynistic view

English sonnet: 3 quatrains + couplet

Question 6

Where does the sonnet originate from?

Answer 6

Italy -> Giacomo da Lentini

later Petrarch

Question 7

When did poetry come to England and why?

Answer 7

• 250 years after Petrarchs Death
• Sir Thomas Wyatt translated Petrarchs poems into English + adapted them e.g. ‘Whoso to hunt’

Question 8

What types of sonnet are there?

Answer 8

• Italian/Petrarchan sonnet: octave + sestet
• English/Shakespearan sonnet: 3 quatrains + couplet

Question 9

What is a ‘Volta’ in a sonnet?

Answer 9

turn, shift (between octave and sestet and between quatrains and couplet)

Question 10

How many lines does a sonnet have?

Answer 10

14 lines in an iambic pentameter

Question 11

When was the century of the sonnet?

Answer 11

16th century

Question 12

When was the century of metaphysical poetry?

Answer 12

17th century

Question 13

Who did Shakespeare dedicate his sonnets to?

Answer 13

-> W.H. :
- Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton
- William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke

Question 14

How many sonnets did Shakespeare write?

Answer 14

154 sonnets
- 1-126 for a Fair Young Man
- 127-154 for a Dark Lady

(1-17 are procreation sonnets)

Question 15

What do you know about the metaphysical poem ‘A Valediction, Forbidding Mourning’ by John Donne?

Answer 15

• uses alternate rhyme scheme (ABAB)
• nine quatrains
• iambic tetrameter
• metaphysical conceit: two lovers arent together but always remain connected (like a compass)
• Love is intellectualized, treated as a scientific object

Question 16

What do you know about the poem ‘To His Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell on a FORMAL level?

Answer 16

• Divided into three parts (If, But, Therefore)
• rhyming couplets (AABB)
• iambic tetrameter

Question 17

What are the parts in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell about?

Answer 17

Part 1: courting, no reply from woman, she is pressured
Part 2: what would happen if they dont do anything at the end (they die)
Part 3: seize day to profit from the time they have (left) -> carpe diem

some say it’s more of a lonely poem

persuasive poetry that combines sensuality, intellectual wit, and a sobering awareness of mortality. It exemplifies the carpe diem philosophy, urging readers to embrace the pleasures of life before it is too late.; time is an opp in this poem; gloomy, lonely picture; fate of the woman is that she will die a virgin & worms will eat her;
Themes of the poem: Carpe Diem, Mortality & Time, Love & Physicality, Persuasion & Wit

Question 18

When were the English Civil Wars?

Answer 18

1641-1651

Question 19

What were the ‘English Civil Wars’ about?

Answer 19

• Cavaliers vs. Roundheads
• Cavaliers were aristocrates that supported Charles I
• Roundheads supported the Parliament

Cavaliers wrote about honor, war and duty to the King, glorified crown

Question 20

What is a ‘metaphysical conceit’?

Answer 20

figure of speech that forms a parallel between dissimilar objects/situations

basically an extended metaphor

Question 21

Define a Spensarian stanza

Answer 21

the stanza used by Spenser in The Faerie Queene, consisting of eight iambic pentameters and an alexandrine, with the rhyming scheme abab bcbc c