Poems. We
all know what they are... or at least we think we do. Poems are commonly known
to end in words that rhyme with the word at the end of the following sentence.
Some poems follow that "rule", whereas others do not.
But what
about a sonnet? Not many people have heard one or even know what one is. A
sonnet is a poem with fourteen lines and every syllable of every word has an
unstressed to a stressed pattern. For example:
(Shall I)
(compare) (thee to) (a sum)mer’s day?
Each bolded
letter represents a stressed syllable, whereas the regular letters represent an
unstressed syllable. Shakespeare uses such a pattern throughout each of his
sonnets, as well as a pattern for each line: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The pattern represents
every other line rhyming with the other. For example:
“When my
love swears that she is made of truth”
(A) When
my love swears that she is made of truth,
(B) I
do believe her, though I know she lies,
(A) That
she might think me some untutored youth,
(B) Unlearned
in the world’s false subtleties.
(C) Thus
vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
(D) Although
she knows my days are past the best,
(C) Simply
I credit her false-speaking tongue;
(D) On
both sides thus is simple truth supprest.
(E) But
wherefore says she not she is unjust?
(F) And wherefore say not I that I am old?
(E) Oh,
love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
(F) And age in love loves not to have years told:
(G) Therefore
I lie with her and she with me,
(G) And
in our faults by lies we flattered be.
-William Shakespeare
Shakespeare
did not write sonnets solely for entertainment- he wrote them to make people
think about what he implying through his words. He does more than rhyme and
create a “beat” for readers. He gives them an idea, a concept, a notion-
something for them to meditate upon.
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