Sonnet 30 Flashcards
Note the rhyme structure. What kind of sonnet is this? Explain.
English/Elizabethan/Shakespearean – it has three quatrains and a rhyming couplet
(indicated by the rhyme scheme ababcdcdefefgg)
Where is the volta (turn) in this poem? What is the cue to this turn?
- The volta is a change in theme or mood and it occurs between the third quatrain and the
rhyming couplet. - It is signaled by the word “But”. In this poem, the quatrains deal with the
grief over losses that the speaker feels, while the couplet indicates that these are balanced
out by remembering the person that the speaker is addressing. - In other words this friend is
more precious than all the things and people that the speaker lost or did not gain.
- The quatrains begin with “When…, Then…, Then…”. What does this emphasise?
- These words emphasise TIME and a condition with consequences. In this case, the condition is nostalgic reminiscence (sessions of sweet silent thought), which is followed by negative consequences (crying over the loss of friends to death and “vanished sight[s]”, re-experiencing grief already past).
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.4. Refer to line 3. Is the rhyme scheme entirely comfortable? Can you think of why the poet might have done this?
- The rhyme scheme should follow abab, while “past” looks like “waste”, they do not really rhyme.
- Poets would usually do this to support either the central meaning of the poem or the meaning of the lines where this occurs. In this case the reminiscing starts as “sessions of sweet silent thought” about the past, but it turns sad as the speaker starts to feel regret over things he did not achieve or gain.
- The slightly uncomfortable feeling engendered by the not
quite rhyming words creates a dissonance that echoes the mood shift.
Discuss the effect of the end-stopped lines.
- The colons create a sense of unending or accumulating misery because each quatrain develops the previous quatrain’s theme a little further. (One of the functions of the colon is to introduce an explanation or elaboration of a statement).
- The full stops bring this to a neat
end and the couplet is short but final.
Briefly outline the subject matter of each quatrain.
Briefly outline the subject matter of each quatrain.
Quatrain 1: reminiscing highlights time wasted/ regret for wasted time;
Quatrain 2: grief over people and things lost
Quatrain 3: reliving the grief and counting the cost thereof.
The first quatrain starts with imagery drawn from a courtroom. Which words indicate this and what does the imagery suggest the speaker is doing?
- Courtroom diction of “sessions” and “summon” suggests the speaker is sitting in judgment of his life and is deliberately calling up memories of the past.
Refer to lines 5 – 6. Would you consider the drowning image hyperbole? Explain.
.- Mostly likely you would have answered yes.
- Drowning suggests an excess of crying and has overtones of tragedy. This either suggests that the speaker is totally overcome by sadness or he is being overly dramatic in a situation that seems to have been deliberately brought on. (Especially as he claims to be someone
who does not usually cry).
From line 7 to line 12 accounting is used as an extended metaphor. Comment critically on
the appropriateness of the image.
- Accounting diction: “expense”, “tell” (can also mean “count”), “account” (can also mean “a tale of events”) and “pay”. Accounting is all about balancing the books - debits and credits.
In this case, this is a CONCEIT (check your notes on “To his coy mistress”). - The speaker is
looking at all the things he regrets or is sad about and they add up enormously.
-This is done to increase the CONTRAST between this state of woe and the resolution offered by the couplet.
-This image may seem mercenary to you in a situation where love and feelings are being described and, therefore, not appropriate. In this case, it may also add to the sense of insincerity that you might feel that the overly dramatic tone at times creates.
OR
- You might feel it is appropriate as the unusual imagery draws attention to just how much the person addresses means to him: all the overly sentimental misery is cancelled out by the reality of this person’s impact on the speaker’s life. This would make it a true compliment.
Discuss the effectiveness of the concluding rhyming couplet in countering the preceding ideas.
- The couplet has a settled feel because of the contracted rhyming. Its brevity is equally effective in countering the sentiments in the quatrains. - – The tone too contrasts with that of the quatrains: where the quatrains become increasingly dramatic (the last one suggests that it is an unnecessary misery) the tone of the couplet is sincere in its simplicity.
- The imagery of the rhyming couplet finishes off the accounting conceit in a positive way (“all losses are restored”).
Comment on the impact of the alliteration in the first stanza. Refer to mood and pace in your answer.
- The repetition of the “s” sound is soft and slows the pace down, which
contributes to the soft reflective mood, which turns sad. The alliteration of the “w” sound, links the negative idea of wasted time with the sadness (“woe”) that the speaker bewails. - This shift away from sibilance to the still soft “w” also effectively rounds off the first quatrain.
Refer to line 4. How does the alliteration contribute to the speaker’s tone?
The “w” although soft, is emphatic here (on the accented syllable), adding to the dramatic
tone distress.
Identify the assonance in lines 9 – 10. Does it seem contrived to you? Would you say that this is consistent with the central message of the poem?
- The assonance in line 9 is the long “ie” sound of “grieve” and “grievance”, followed by the “OH” sound of “woe” and “o’er” in line 10.
- Both are very strong, stretched out sounds that particularly the oh sound are associated with suffering and pain: the first with keening and
the second with mental anguish. - (The question has the line reference wrong: it was meant to cover lines 10 – 11, so the frequent repetition of the “oh” does seem a little overdone and stagy. This does seem to fit the central idea that all of his misery is light and sentimental in light of the deep joy the speaker feels when he thinks of this friend.)
