Tim wrote on Mar 9
th, 2006 at 8:24pm:
So, i am going to ask questions regarding not just the Spenserian sonnet here. Regarding three sonnets we have looked at (reverse order: Spenserian, Shakespearean and the Petrarchan) all consist of 14 lines. The Shakespearean comprises of 3 quatrains and an endling couplet that sums up the previous quatrains. Petrarchan is 14 lines that comprise one actual stanza but, for construction sake is considered two. One octet that poses a problem/query and one sestet that offers a solution. The turn in which one way of thinking or being into another is called a volta.
First question: is the volta typically the 'light bulb' realization the speaker has at the time they see clearly how to answer the dilemma? Could a volta be delivered in a manner like "i think 'this' way about "A" only to find out that "A" really works 'that' way (the volta becomes the discovery of truth) then sestet address the newly discovered problem. Is that a proper option for the volta or there usually some moment when after meditation or inspiration the logic of the poem just starts to change toward the answer to the problem started in the octet?
That question was very theoretical and i understand that poetry is not math, this was the only i could think of to ask the question.
Next question: Am i correct in saying that the Petrarchan doesn't really 'sum up' at the end its "trip" the same way the Shakespearean does?
Third question: The Spenserian sonnet is one interlocked poem of 14 lines, yet in the example you offer the last two lines still offer conclusion like a Shakespearean ending couplet. Do i read that correctly and if so, is that typical of Spenserian sonnets?
Last question: Is there a difference between the Elizabethan sonnet and the Shakespearean sonnet? Is one variation of the other?
Thanks again for your time Eric. i appreciate it. ~tim/azurepoetry
P.S. i am still going over the mythic sonnet. i will post on that thread any questions i get when they arise. Thanks again.
Okay...back to give this a shot.
Last question first. My favorite poetic resource, the U of Toronto Glossary of poetic terms, defines the Shakespearean thus:
English (or Shakespearean) sonnet: the Englished form of the Italian sonnet, developed by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, earl of Surrey with three quatrains and a concluding couplet, with the scheme abab cdcd efef gg . It does not mention the Elizabethan Sonnet. My Thesaurus does...it says
Noun 1. Elizabethan sonnet - a sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg
See: English sonnet, Shakespearean sonnet
I think it is safe to say that the sonnet is called Elizabethan for being popular in that period, and because someone decided only Shakespeare wrote Shakespeareans.
Third question: in my experience, the "summing-up-let" is nearly a convention to all sonnet forms that end with a couplet. It just seems to come naturally when writing them.
Second question: It would be more correct, I think, to say that the Petrarchan, not employing the final couplet in all cases, tends to spread that "summing up" over the final sestet...and possibly capitalizes on it in the final line, as in the Milton example we looked at.
"They also serve who only stand and wait."
First question.
With exceptions, yes, I think the volta often serves as the introduction of the epiphany... the "lightbulb" moment. I think this is most particularly true in Milton's work.
Dan'l, "over the rails" is a sailor's term, deriving from the usage "rail meat"...a deck hand who truly doesn't have the skills to work the rigging, and is usually just ordered from one side of the boat to the other, as a counter-balance. To be "over the rails" is to be clinging precariously to what little balance one can maintain.
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Styles of Sonnet: the Spenserian sonnet (Read 168 times)
