Sonnets

Question 1

What are the features of a Sonnet? (5)

Answer 1

Iambic pentameter
14 lines
Rhyming couplet
Arguments, opinions
Decasyllabic metre

Question 2

What are the basic metres? (4)

Answer 2

Iamb(ic) x /
trochee / x
Spondee / /
Prryhic x x

Question 3

Basic syllable counts (feet) (8)

Answer 3

Monometer
Di 
tri
Tetra
Penta
hexa
hepta
octa

Question 4

Describe trochaic inversion

Answer 4

Provides emphasis at the start of a line

/ x instead of x /

Question 5

What is a virgule?

Answer 5

breaks up feet

Question 6

What is a caesura?

Answer 6

Medial break, ordinarily between rather than within feet.

Question 7

What are the parts of a sonnet (lines)

Answer 7

Octaves
Quatrains
Couplets
Sestet
Tercet
Douzain

Question 8

What is the Italian term for turn?

Answer 8

Volta

Change in argument, theme, tone

Question 9

What are the origins of the Sonnet?

Answer 9

Italian form c.1230
Roots in province and troubadour song
Courtly love themes

Question 10

What is a conceit?

Answer 10

A complex, theme

usually love, pain, tragedy, lust

Question 11

What is the rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet?

Answer 11

an octave and a sestet

ABBA ABBA CDE CDE

Question 12

What is the rhyme scheme of a English Sonnet?

Answer 12

an octave and a sestet (3 quatrains and a couplet)

ABAB ABAB CDCD EE

Question 13

What is the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean Sonnet?

Answer 13

A douzain and a couplet
3 quatrains
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Question 14

What are the features of a pre-1700 sonnet?

Answer 14

Tends to have development
Stability of character/muse
Sense of frustration, progress, resolution (narrative)

Question 15

Who were Shakespeare’s muses for his 154 sonnets?

Answer 15

Young, fair man

Dark lady/mistress

Question 16

What is a metaphysical poem?

Answer 16

large conceit that is overarching

Question 17

What was the Romantic era for poetry? What happened in the era that changed poetry?

Answer 17

approx 1780-1837
Revolutions: French, American
Romanticism: emotions, discovery

Question 18

When was the Victorian era?

Answer 18

During Queen Victoria’s reign: 1837- 1900

Question 19

What were some features of Victorian poetry?

Answer 19

more balance between genders

Strong religious, emotional, political themes

Question 20

Name 3 pre-1700 poets.

Answer 20

Shakespeare: Shall I compare thee…
John Donne: Batter my heart…
John Milton: upon his blindness…

Question 21

Name 3 Romantic era poets.

Answer 21

Wordsworth : London 1802
John Keats: On first looking into Chapman's homer
Percy Bysshe (husband of Mary Shelley)

Question 22

Name 3 Victorian era poets.

Answer 22

Elizabeth Barret Browning: How do I love thee?…
Christina Rosetti: in an artist’s studio
Thomas Hardy: Hap

Question 23

What is the opening line from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Victorian love sonnet?

Answer 23

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”

Question 24

What does Hardy’s sonnet say in response to Hopkin’s sonnet?

Answer 24

“vengeful god”

“my pilgrimage as pain”

Question 25

What does Milton say in poem 51? (What Wordsworth is responding to)

Answer 25

“Cromwell, our chief of men”

“whose gospel is their maw”