Genres

• nonsense poetry
– nursery rhymes
• dramatic verse
• narrative poetry
– folk/literary epics
– lais
– folk/literary ballads
• lyric poetry
 Ballads Revisited
• What are the formal qualities of the ballad?
• What do we expect of their content?
• How do Housman’s and Hardy’s poems
exemplify the genre?
• How do they differ?
• What limits do ballads have in terms of
expression?
 Lyric Poetry
• Focuses on emotions and thought
• Doesn’t tell a story, or at most an implied
narrative
• Many, varied genres
• Generally more common and popular today
than narrative poetry
 Range of Types
• Villanelle
• Triolet
• Elegy
• Ode
• Pantoum
• Idyll
• Threnody
 Formal Qualities: “Typical” Sonnets
• fourteen line lyric poem
• five stressed syllables
• often iambic pentameter
• regular rhyme scheme
• regular stanza form
• two distinct parts (argument, volta)
 Italian Sonnets
• also called Petrarchan sonnets
• origins in the 13th century
• developed by the Italian poet Petrarch
• developed further by Dante
• two stanzas
• one octave (8) which rhymes abba/abba
• one sestet (6) which rhymes cde/cde
Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374)
 English Sonnets
• also called Shakespearean sonnets
• four stanzas
• three quatrains (4 + 4 + 4)
• one couplet (2)
• rhyme scheme abab/cdcd/efef/gg

• How do we explain the different rhyme schemes

between the Italian and English sonnets?
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
 Sonnet Structure
• Argument: the problem or situation proposed
by the first part of the sonnet, typically in the
octave of the Italian sonnet, and the three
quatrains of the English sonnet
• Volta: the “turn” in the poem, typically in the
sestet of the Italian sonnet and the couplet of
the English sonnet
 Volta
• a volta (Italian) means a turn, which here means a
“turn” in the thought expressed by the poem
• usually occurs between stanza one and two in Italian
sonnets: the first stanza poses a problem; the second
stanza offers a solution
• usually occurs in the couplet of an English sonnet,
which provides a “key” to understanding the problem
of the first three stanzas
• rules are not uncommonly broken
 Common Sonnet Themes
• Sonnets are traditionally contemplative

• Love (in various forms) is a common theme

• Death, sometimes in conjunction with love
• Time (finitude, eternity, mutability)
• Imagination and the creative impulse
 Review
• Look once more at Shakespeare’s “Sonnet
73.”

• Note the formal and thematic qualities of this

poem.
• We will use this as a test case.
 “Sonnet 73”
That time of year thou mayst in me behold a
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang b
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, a
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. b

In me thou see’st the twilight of such day c

As after sunset fadeth in the west; d
Which by and by black night doth take away, c
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest. d
 “Sonnet 73”
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire, e
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, f
As the death-bed whereon it must expire, e
Consumed with that which it was nourished by. f

This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more g

strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long. g
 Investigate the Following
• Using the poems by Rossetti and Drayton,
consider:

• Semantics
• Form
• Theme
• Structure
• Technique
 Semantics
• Restate the poem’s content in non-poetic
language.
 Form
• Consider the meter and rhyme scheme in each
sonnet. Diagram a couple of lines metrically.
• What do they have in common? How do they
differ?
• What types of sonnets are they?
• Do they fulfill our expectations of the genre?
 Technique
• What are some of the metaphors in the poems?
• Where is personification used?
 Theme and Structure
• What is the main theme in each poem?
• Who are the poems written to? Note
differences between an in-text audience and a
reader.
• Is there a volta in each poem?
Christine Rossetti (1830-1894)
 “Remember”
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
 “Remember”
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Michael Drayton (1563-1631)
 “Sonnet 15”
Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part.
Nay, I have done; you get no more of me,
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free;

Shake hands forever, cancel all our vows,

And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
 “Sonnet 15”
Now at the last gasp of Love’s latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies,
When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And Innocence is closing up his eyes,

Now if thou wouldst, when all have given

him over,
From death to life thou mightst him yet
recover.
 Note: Rossetti
• Repetition: remember
– What tone is conveyed by this repetition?
• Contrast: remember/forget
– What irony is conveyed by this contrast?
• Compression: volta
– What is the essential message of the poem?
 Note: Drayton
• Conceit: metaphor and personification
– What is the metaphoric center of the conceit?
• Reversal: volta
– How does the volta reverse expectations (in the
argument)?
E.E. Cummings (1897-1962)
 “my naked lady framed”
• See copies.
 Cummings
• Formally, the poem is somewhat unusual, but
thematically it is just as traditional as the
others. Why?
• Answering this question depends on
understanding what he is talking about.
• What arts are mentioned? Who is the speaker
addressing? What is the relation between the
arts and that person? What does it all imply?
Immanuel Kant and Aesthetics
 “Sonnet 27”
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind when body’s work’s expired;
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see;
Save that my soul’s imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which like a jewel hung in ghastly night
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo, thus by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.
 For Next Time
• Read: “The Garden of Forking Paths” and
“The Continuity of Pork”

• I urge looking ahead to the Doyle story since it

is slightly longer than most of our reading.