8. THE SONNET: Sidney, Spenser, Wyatt, Shakespeare
The form of the sonnet
- all sonnets consist of 14 lines
- it’s a single stanza lyric form
Blazon - enumeration of different parts of the body the I-speaker says about – (idealized)
Theme of sonnets
- conventional presentation of a typical lady (beautiful)=> writers loves her; suffers because she doesn’t love him
- it’s combination of feelings, love & passion
- tell about timeless truths
Typical situation in sonnets: the I-speaker is in love and idealize both, the love and the object of his love. This love isn’t mutual; the object of love mistress doesn’t love the I speaker. Lady critics the feeling and then burns his poems- destroying them proves how little she cares about him (e.g. Sonnets to Laura).
Typical presentation of woman: always beautiful, the fairest, etc.
Certain expressions are used: Her eyes like stars; teeth like pearls; hair are fair; lips like cherries; complexion like peaches or alabaster => stock expressions of the sonnets as a way of describing a woman-Petrarchan convention
Petrarcha made it famous but didn’t invent it
PETRARCHAN SONNET/ Italian sonnet
As first used it and made it famous.
1 stanza: octave- descriptive part (generalization) presents problem
Sestet- reflexive part (examples) presents resolution
reflexive part (examples)
descriptive part (generalization)
A B B A A B B A│C D E C D E
Octave │ Sestet
Volta
First English sonnets in XVI cent
At those times writing sonnets was very fashionable because of its difficult form with limited structure, so writing sonnets proved the skill of the author. To write sonnet one had to be well- skilled in rhetoric and linguistic at the same time- rhetoric exercise. Writing sonnets means imposing functional form and structure and sth irrational- emotion.
Feeling/emotion + structure => sonnet
SHEAKSPEARIAN SONNET/ English sonnet
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Quatrach Couplet
Variation of English sonnet is a SPENSERIAN SONNET (invented and used by Spenser)
…..….Quatrach…....
ABAB BCBC CDCD EE
Couplets Couplet
Couplets (BB, CC)- made of the last line of preceding quatrach and the initial line of the following quatrach
In English tradition sonnets dealt with different topics: nature, time, love, mutability (change).
3 themes: beauty of the lady
Mutability
Exegi monumentum (Horace wanted to immortalize himself whereas Shakespeare
immortalizes a lady)
PARTICULAR SONNETS:
Shakespeare
Sonnet 18 ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer day’
Summer’s day is supposed to be perfect (it’s beautiful, fresh, considered as a symbol of perfection) so comparing the lover to it would prove her beauty as sth perfect (ideal beauty).
After very first line the I-speaker is wondering whether he can compare her to day in fact isn’t perfect; in the next lines we can find many disadvantages of a summer’s day:
- ‘rough winds do shake the darling buds of May’
- ‘Too hot the the eye of heaven shines’
- ‘ summer’s lease hath all short a date’
So summer day isn’t perfect and may have negative sides, the summer’s day is too short, etc. Summer is presented neither perfect nor everlasting/permanent; it passes and changes => here Shakespeare introduces the concept of MUTABILITY= things change, nothing stays forever, lack of permanence, changing.
Summer passes and changes into autumn.
Imagine of season=> summer is used to present the theme of changeability (very common illustration of mutability).
The only existing remedy/antidote for impermenence/ mutability is poetry. The object of love is immortalized by existing in poetry=> EXEGI MONUMENTUM (comes from Horace but then it was associated with the immortability of the poet). Here it applies to the object of love that is immortalized- a change of theme!
The poem starts with ‘thee’ and finishes with ‘thee’ (a circle). This ‘thee’ of the poem was nothing else as the excuse for composing the poem. So this poetry which immortalizes the object of love is inspired by the object of love (the importance of sb who inspires poetry).
He starts with ‘thee’ then the theme of seasons, changeability and impermanence; later ‘exegi monumentum’ motif and at the end one more time ‘thee’.
It’s a circular structure of the sonnet => repetition of the theme at the beginning and the end of the sonnet; so instead of mutability there’s in structure sth that’s permanent; cyclicity.
CYCLICITY= repetitiveness; starts from the first image then goes to the second and third and then returns to the first one.
‘thee’ => description of a summer’s day which is imperfect and introduction of theme of mutability=> exegi monumentum motif- poetry as antidote for changeability => ‘thee’
The end is the beginning= cyclicity (the same is with seasons)
winter
autumn spring
summer
Sonnet 55 ‘Not Marble, Nor the Gilded Monuments’
· Exegi monumentum theme, but the object of love is immortalized not the pact(?)- transformation of exegi monumentum theme (the I- speaker is building the monument for the object of love)
· Images exploited in the sonnet are connected with buildings/masionery (‘marble’, ‘monument’, ‘stone’, ‘statue’) but all those things made by man are presented as destroyed (‘statues overturn’)
· I speaker speaks of ruins=> the theme of mutability; everything is changing with the time, even stones (the time is usually presented in connection with ruins; poetry will immortalize the I- speaker’s love: ‘ she will be in eyes of all posterity’)
· Writing poetry is equivalent to creation of the world by God; so the poet is what God is- he’s the creator
Spenser
‘From Amoretti’ Sonnet 35
The main theme is suffering
Mythical motif of Narcissus=> he felt in love with his own reflection and killed himself(drowned) looking at his own reflection=> inaccessible object of his love.
Poem consists such elements as senses (esp. sight which is prominent for the text and the material world which is around us and which is imperfect). The reality is just a shadow/ reflection= PLATONIC PHILOSPHY. The I-speaker looks with his senses but they show him real life which is nothing else as just shadow.
The I-speaker lover is so ideal that everything else disappears and may not exist for him.Only looking at her ideal beauty gives him what he needs. When she isn’t around he can starve himself to death.
‘All this worlds glory seemeth vayne to me, And all their showes but shadowes, saving she.’
Opposition between reality and shadows; sth that is real is opposed to shadows= material world.
‘From Amoretti’ Sonnet 75
Spenser used the theme of exegi monumentum but in different way.
The I-speaker writes the name of his beloved woman on the beach (One day I wrote her name upon the strand,) but it washed away by the wave (But came the waves and washed it away) so he writes it for the 2nd time (Agayne I wrote it with a second hand,) but it was also washed away (But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray) so the name disappears every time the tide comes=> impermanence, mutability.
On the other hand the same thing happens all the time(waves wash away the name written on the beach) so it’s something stable, permanent; this permanence comes in cycles.
Mini- debate=> dialogue between a woman and a man. They present different ideas. At the beginning such pronouns as ‘your’, ‘mine’ and at the end there’s a pronoun ‘our’- so two things become one, are unified.
A married couple seen as the reflection of God who is both male and female; co-existing within him.
Impermanence is the same as permanence, why do we perceive them as two different things? Because our senses are imperfect; in fact the whole world is unified (= PLATONIC PHILOSPHY).
What’s common for Spenser and Shakespeare?
- the usage of themes of mutability and love;
- for Spenser the poetry is ideal. The creation of poem is equivalent with the act of the creation of the world by God who brings things to life. Reading the poem is an equivalent of resurrection of the world, recreation.
- Because of Platonic Philosophy Spencer’s sonnets are more complex than Shakespearian ones; also more complex because of the structure.
OTHER SONNETS
2 translations of the same sonnet by Petrarca
Henry Howard, Earl of Survey ‘Love, That Doth Reign and Live Within My Thought’
Thomas Wyatt ‘The Long Love That in My Thought Doth Harbour’
In both love compared to a conquering warrior- the use of military vocabulary:
‘The Long Love…’ ‘campeth’, ‘spreading his banner’
‘Love, That Doth…’ ‘captive’, ‘clad in the arms’, ‘fought’, ‘banner’
The warrior is taking captives(prisoners) and later on is retreating because of the lady’s criticism.
Love spreads banner(sztandar) over the I-speaker face, the addressee of the poem sees the banner and know about it. Spreading the banner means demonstrating sth, banners shows sth- it’s symbolic. The banner stands for blushes which are signs of desire. The I-speaker can’t hide them. The woman who sees blushes(=banner) tells him he should frain/control his desires. When she criticizes his blushes on his face the banner disappears and also desire vanishes. If the warrior retreats he takes his banner with him=> she teaches him that desire should be controlled by reason even if the I-speaker still loves her. The desire for her isn’t manifested.
The banner also suggests that love makes us blind, covers our eyes. Love is his master:
What may I do, when my master feareth,
But in the field with him to live and die?
So the I- speaker is going to die with his master= love; it means loving his object of love forever.
Sidney
‘From Astrophil and Stella’ Sonnet 1
Stella (łac.)= star , Astrophil (gr.)= lover
It’s a poem about writing. Astrophil can’t express himself to write to his beloved, he can’t find appropriate words- he’s looking for words in other texts.
The first quatrach explains his reasoning for wanting to write to Stella. He wishes to express his love and entertain his object of love through his poetry. He believes that if she reads what he wrote, she will know of his ‘pain’, feel sorry for him and through that pity will offer him her ‘grave’= fall in love with him. A series of consequences: his pain- her pleasure- reading- knowledge- pity- grace= effect chain.
The I speaker hopes to win her love by seeming pitiful=> taking pleasure of one’s pain; pity is an oxymoron (pleasure and pain).
The I-speaker is looking for inspiration in ‘others’ leaves’ = pages. It means that he reads other poems looking for sth which would inspire him’… to see if thence would flow’
‘Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburned brain’. But taking ideas from others means imitation and doesn’t work for him: ‘And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way.’ => it’s one of the earliest declarations of the need of originality in one’s work. Astrophil says that he can’t study others to be creative himself.
‘Feet’ may mean tracks of people. Following other people’s footsteps doesn’t seem to be the right way for him.
‘Feet’ may also mean the other people’s poetry=> ‘foot’ refers to the meter of poems (a certain pattern in poetry which is to be followed but it doesn’t fit him).He has to write what is in his own heart if he wants to be effective: "look in thy heart, and write" => the greatest inspiration is inside him, in his heart (there’s love); he’s pregnant (not with child) with words but he’s helpless in expressing them.
Invention vs. Imitation:
- invention is original
- imitation is only repetition
Invention is over imitation.
The feeling may be original/ new but talking about love is always an imitation=> you use words which sb has already uttered, so you’re just quoting= in everything there’s always a certain degree of imitation.
Pure invention isn’t possible; pure imitation doesn’t work => only combination of those two: invention+ imitation is possible and work well.
‘From Astrophil and Stella’ Sonnet 31
The I-speaker is addressing himself to the moon. He presumes that what he feels can also be attributed to the moon: ‘Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes
Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case’ => example of pathetic fantasy, when we think that nature experiences the same emotions we feel.
The I-speaker assumes that Cupid has shoot the moon with one of his love arrows:
‘may it be that even in heavenly place
That busy archer his sharp arrows tries?’
The moon is silent looks pale: ‘How silently, and with how wan a face!’ .
Those signs of suffering are connected with reciprocated love. The I-speaker knows very well what these sufferings are, he calls his eyes: ‘that long-with-love-acquainted eyes’ and looking at the moon the lover knows that he’s love-sick and suffers the same what does. He can also find in the moon all the characteristics of sb who suffers because of love. He shifts his feelings on the moon; both: the Moon and the I-speaker are in love.
The I-speaker wants to know if women in heavenly sphere are the same as on earth; do they make men suffer in the same way: ‘Are beauties there as proud as here they be?’.
He also asks the Moon a question: ‘Is constant love deem'd there but want of wit?’ (want of wit=sth stupid) => so those who love are considered to be stupid by the women they love.
Ladies enjoy humiliating the men who love them. Women want to be loved but when they are loved they consider those ‘love-sick’ stupid not worth their love and lack sth (criticism of women’s behaviuor). Women want love but when they’re loved they’re ungrateful.
I- speaker asks: ‘Do they call "virtue" there--ungratefulness?’ in what sense the ingratitude is a virtue?
Virtuous (cnotliwy) lover is faithful, loyal, honest, has no vices.
Virtuous woman possesses the same features as virtuous lover but in addition she’s a virgin.
So woman’s ingratitude/ungratefulness can be considered as virtue, because when woman is ungrateful there’s no possibility of sexual love, sexual meetings ( not having a premaritial sex is a virtue).If the woman doesn’t want to loose this virtue he rejects the love of I-speaker. The same happens in heaven=> proof: the Moon suffers the same symptoms as the I-speaker and the reason is the same- ungrateful woman who is scornful (pogardliwy) and rejects the love in order not to loose her virtue.
Ylayda