English Sonnet Analysis

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The revival of the sonnet by Charlotte Smith allowed other Romantic writers, such as Wordsworth and Coleridge, the means by which to use the sonnet style in their own work. The sonnet is Italian in origin. This poem always has fourteen lines and a fixed rhyme scheme. The italian sonnet was called a petrarchan, in which the first eight lines set up a question or analogy and the last six lines had a solution or point to be made. The English sonnet, made famous by Shakespeare, varies from the italian sonnet in that though it also has fourteen lines, it uses the first twelve lines to set up a situation and then ends with a rhyming couplet to make a direct point. I plan in this journal entry to examine these two types of sonnets by exploring …show more content…

Additionally, every four lines forms a quatrain, equalling to three individual quatrains before the ending two line rhyming couplet. The first twelve lines explain Shakespeare’s view of how those dear to him in life should view him after his death. The last two lines explain how it may be hard and may be subject to mockery, but remembering him after death is sweet and sentimental. Though there are different components of sophisticated craft being used here, the poem centers around one central theme: Shakespeare’s feeling about after death sentiments.
In Smith revival of the English sonnet, she employs this technique exactly the same way, though varying when in reference to the subject matter. For example, Smith’s poem entitled, Written in the church-yard at Middleton in Sussex, reads:
“Press’d by the Moon, mute arbitress of tides,
While the lud equinox its power combines,
The sea no more its swelling surge confines,
But o’er the shrinking land sublimely …show more content…

They explain a current state or situation then make a larger point in regard to that situation. It is the means by which the poet chooses to craft their work in accomplishing the end goal. This journal entry allowed me to the time and thought to focus on the fundamentals of poetry and lightly touch on the meaning of the poems. This exercise was positive because it gave me the opportunity to see how I could use both types of sonnets to teach poetry in the future. I will plan on especially focusing on these poems because of their crafted rhyme scheme and easy to understand

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