The English Sonnet is just one of many variations of what started out as the word for "little song." Hence, it is called sonnet, or a truncated form of sonnetto. In form, it is not difficult. The content is presented in fourteen lines, which is more flexible than the 17 syllables of haiku but far more restrictive than the three thousand line epics of historical predecessors like Homer and Virgil.
Condition I: 14 lines
Each of the fourteen lines consists of five units of measure with a specific pattern of rhythm.
Rhythm itself is a pattern of syllables that are stressed or unstressed, i.e., they have a pattern of accents or non-accents. The vocabulary of languages consists of multiple-syllable words as well as one-syllable words, the combination of which forms a recognizable pattern of speech This pattern can undulate (flow like a wave) according to its arrangement in a linear format.
Example: Poe's "The Raven" has a relatively consistent trochaic pattern of stressed-unstressed syllables. It begins, Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary... a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that is almost melodic.
Another example: The Christmas piece with a well-know lyrical pattern is, "T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse... "
Note the anapestic pattern of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed throughout the line. To make the process consistent with historical applications, the rhythmic patterns use the names that were available at the time of their formal inception into classical literature. Their nomenclature included reference not only to their QUANTITY (number of syllables per line but also their QUALITY (the specific kind of named pattern per line). The characteristics of the syllable were likewise classified as LONG (stressed) or SHORT (unstressed).
These are as follows:
1. the IAMB: a pattern two syllables the first of which is Unstressed followed by a Stressed
2. the reciprocal of the iamb is the TROCHEE which is the reverse: two syllable, the first being Stressed while the second is Unstressed
3. a third pattern is the DACTYL, which consists of three syllables with the first one stressed and the next two unstressed
4. the reciprocal of the dactyl is the ANAPEST which has a pattern of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed
5. two forms which are often used as filler between or among the others are the SPONDEE, two consecutive stressed syllables and the PYRRHIC which is a combination of two Unstressed syllables.
How does this apply to the five-foot line? Consider that each of the iambs, dactyls, trochees, anapests, spondees, and pyrrhic combinations is a measure (from METER, the Greek word for measure), not so different from a measure of music. But, it seems that the word FOOT became an essential, universally acceptable measurement for each of the syllabic combinations. Again, the Greek influence prevailed and the number of metrical (measurable) units (feet) required a numerical value to show how many of these units were in a line. Consider the following:
One foot per line = MONOMETER two feet per line = DIMETER three feet per line = TRIMETER four feet per line = TETRAMETER five feet per line = PENTAMETER six feet per line = HEXAMETER seven feet per line = HEPTAMETER eight feet per line = OCTAMETER nine feet per line = NONAMETER (a rarity) ten feet per line = DECAMETER [Hence, the ten-foot line.]
By extension, the following labels would apply.
A line of poetry that consists of four metrical feet of dactyls = dactylic tetrameter.
A line that consists of ten measures of anapests = anapestic decameter.
By definition the, the sonnet is a poem that utilizes 14 lines of iambic pentameter.
Condition II: Iambic pentameter(The Shakespearean or English Sonnet)
How do the string of words in a line, whether poetic or not, fit the pattern? The answer to that lies with the artistry, talent, genius of the writer. Sometimes it happens by luck, by chance, or on purpose. Look at the following examples:
A truck spilled its cargo of bananas. [7 words totaling 10 syllables of no set pattern] The highway was covered with yellow peels. [Again, 7 words and 10 syllables with no set patter]
A truck banana-laden spilled its load [9 words and 10 syllables in an iambic pattern] the concrete path attired with yellow peels. [7 words, 10 iambic measures]
See? Now we have two lines of iambic pentameter.
Condition III The string of words must be arranged to form the iambic pentameter flow.
Condition IV involves a variable, rhyme scheme. The English (Shakespearean) form takes on the rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. (End rhyme simply means the sound at the end of the line.)
Summary: The sonnet consists of 14 lines of iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme to be determined by a specific type determined by the writer, whether it follows Spenserian, Shakespearean, or Petrarchan.
The content of the sonnet has some strictly listed conditions that are imposed only by the purists. The first three quatrains should state the problem while the couplet at the end should resolve it; but these are limitations I choose to modify to my own liking for the sake of getting a point across. Call it poetic license.
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