Ways to Look at a Sonnet

A. Put the following phrases from Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, Sonnet 1, into a bubble diagram to show the connections between ideas:

•I sought words
•That the dear She might take some pleasure of my pain,
•1.Pleasure might cause her read,
•2.reading might make her know,
•3. Knowledge might pity win,
•4. pity grace obtain,

•to paint the blackest face of woe,
•Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain.
•Oft turning others' leaves
•to see if thence would flow/Some fresh and fruitful showers
•upon my sunburned brain.

B. Questions to ask about a sonnet:

Shakespeare's Sonnet 12 (pp. 1062-63)
Find the structure:
How many sentences?___________________

Rhyme scheme? _______________________

Divisions (octave/sestet, quatrains/couplet)? ____________________________________

Locate key or puzzling words:
Unfamiliar words? ________________________________________________________

Changed meanings? _______________________________________________________

Pronouns? _______________________________________________________________

Puns, double meanings? ____________________________________________________

Find the thought progression:
Word markers (when, then, for, but, yet, etc.)? __________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Anaphora? ______________________________________________________________

Volta? _________________________________________________________________

Note poetic devices:
Images? ________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Personification?__________________________________________________________

Metaphors?______________________________________________________________

Similes?_________________________________________________________________

State the main idea in one sentence._________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

C. Finding the structure of a sonnet: (Shakespeare's Sonnet 65, p., 1067). Complete the clauses and answer the questions after the following "structure markers."

•Lines 1-4
•Since . . .
•How ?
•Lines 5-8
•O how ?
•Lines 9-12
•Where ?
•What ?
•Who ?
•Lines 13-14
•O none, unless