Sonnets + Language Flashcards
What is the structure of a sonnet?
14 line poem, written in Iambic pentameter, employs a rhyme scheme with 3 Quatrains and a rhyming couplet, ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG
What happens in the Quatrains vs. the couplet?
There is inductive reasoning and evidence in the Quatrains that gathers into an argument and then there is a shift in the couplet where finally the thesis is presented
Poetry
Concentrated language produced through rythm ad sound, also called verse, heightened form of laguage
Prose
Everyday speech
Metrical writing/meter
A regular rythmic pattern in language
Iambic Pentameter/Blank verse
A form that uses a metrical pattern
Iamb
A unit of speech that contains one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
ex: A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse
I am a pirate with a wooden leg
Why did Shakespeare write in Iambic Pentameter?
Very common in era, resembles human patterns of speech
Why were words so important in Elizabethan plays?
Had basic props, had to communicate points, coustumes/ language crucial to communication
Inversion
Shakespeare often rearranges word order to create rhythms or to emphasize a particular word
ex: goes he?=he goes
Archaic language
words, grammatical structures, and phrases that used to be common but aren’t anymore
“away from light steals home my heavy son” My son was sad so he snuck home to be alone
Omission
Shakespeare might omit a whole word or part of a word to create ryhmes
ex: Heard the new? instead of Have you heard the news? or “Good E’en instead of Good evening”
Classical Allusion
An allusion to Greek/Roman Mythology
Biblical Allusion
Indirect reference to the Bible
Pun
A play on words, playing with the sound of words to create a particular effect (amusement, thought, provaction, clarification)
Petrarchan Love
Lover emphasizes paralyzing instentiy of love
language describes love as perfect, only flaw is mortal
lover is melancholy wants to be alone bc love is not returned
Why does the Shakesperan Stanza have it’s name?
The Shakespearean Stanza is called that not bc it was invented by Shakespeare but bc he was the best at writing them
Who hired Shakespeare to write Sonnets for her child’s 17th birthday?
Mary Hebert of Wilton
Who were these sonnets written to and what does this tell us about Shakespeare?
Some sonnets are written to a man
Sonnets display the emotional capacity of Shakespeare
Shakespeare feels unworthy to know man
Shakespeare could have been physically involved with man sonnets are about
Sonnet 33 is about a father’s grief for his dead child, it could be about Shakespeare’s son
The sonnets are meant to encourage love/marriage
Where did Shakespeare move to in London?
Southwarke was dark side
What happens to Shakespeare in London?
Shakespeare falls in love with a married woman, despite being married himself
Who was the woman Shakespeare had an affair with and wrote sonnets about?
A man called Foreman does the horoscope of a woman called Emilia Lainer. The woman was a dark skinned venetian jew who was the daughter of the greatest musical family in London. William says she almost drove him mad.
What is a Paradox?
A statement that seems self contradictory but when further examined is true and or wise
ex: wise fool, youth is wasted on the young
