In More Detail
Literature for Life
Volume 1
Section 3
In More Detail - Learning about Poetry (sonnet)
William Shakespeare
Sonnet CXXX
Knowledge
base
1. What do you already know about Shakespeare? Look at your notes and quiz your
partner.
2. Review your knowledge of the sonnet.
a. There are two basic sonnet types — what are they?
b. Describe the features the two types have in common and those which differentiate
them.
MP3 26
First reading
3. Listen to and read the poem.
Typically, sonnets dedicated to a lady idealise the lady’s beauty and character. Does
this sonnet idealise the speaker’s “mistress”?
T 31
William Shakespeare
Sonnet CXXX
in Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609)
5
10
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Gli occhi della mia donna nulla hanno del sole,
il corallo è ben più rosso del rosso delle sue labbra;
se la neve è bianca, il suo seno è certo bruno,
se son setole i capelli, nere setole avrebbe in capo.
Ho visto rose screziate, rosse e bianche,
ma non vedo tali rose sulle sue gote;
e in certi olezzi vi è maggior delizia
che non nell’alito che la mia donna emana.
Io amo la sua voce eppure ben conosco
che la musica ha un suono molto più gradito;
ammetto che mai vidi l’inceder d’una dea:
la mia donna nel camminar calpesta il suolo.
Eppure, per il cielo, per me è talmente bella
quanto ogni altra donna falsamente decantata.
(translated by Maria Antonietta Marelli)
Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (sonnet)
William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXXX
1
In More Detail
In more detail
Content, form,
language
and sound
4. Focus on form and content.
a. Divide the poem into four parts by using the full stops as indications
of the divisions.
b. Complete the line references and the summaries of the content.
Part 1 (lines
________ )
The speaker considers various aspects of his lady’s appearance — her
___________ and
her _______________, her _______________ and her ______________.
He notes that her eyes are not as bright as the sun, her
________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________.
Part 2 (lines
________ )
The speaker moves on to contemplate the colouring of her cheeks
and the perfume of her breath. He says that
______________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________.
Part 3 (lines
________ )
He next compares the sound of music with
and the movement of a goddess with
________________________________
______________________________________.
His mistress is confirmed as a very normal and average person in
those terms.
Part 4 (lines
________ )
However, in the poem’s conclusion the speaker says that, despite her
not having any marvellous attributes,
_______________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________.
5. Do the rhyme scheme and the poem’s indentation reinforce the division
of the content into four parts?
6. The sonnet mocks the kind of similes typically found in love sonnets which
idealise the loved one.
a. What are the typical similes of traditional love sonnets, as can be deduced from the poem?
b. Why do you think Shakespeare mocks the typical love sonnet here?
c. Do you think his approach was innovative for the time?
Fixed forms
7. Revise the sonnet forms.
a. Refer to the rhyme scheme and discover what kind Sonnet CXXX is.
b. Tick the features of the form that you found in the sonnet.
English (Shakespearean) Sonnet
number of lines
line groupings
14
4-4-4-2
(3 quatrains and a couplet)
alignment / indentation the final couplet is indented
Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet
14
4 - 4 - 3 - 3 or 8 - 6
(two quatrains and two tercets or an octave
and a sestet)
aligned
distribution of content
argument 1 - argument 2 argument 3 - summary/epigram
number of turns
1 - between the 3rd quatrain
and the final couplet
1 - between the octave and the sestet
abab cdcd efef gg
abba abba cde cde
abba abba cdc cdc
abba abba cdc dcd
(changes in direction of
the argument or narrative)
rhyme scheme
statement - counterstatement
or
or
Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (sonnet)
William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXXX
2
In More Detail
SAY
IT
RIGHT
Sonnet CXXX
NOTEBOOK
Fill in the gaps in the texts by using the words provided.
Sonnet CXXX is one of Shakespeare’s
most popular and
(1)
. It mocks
the traditional idealised view of love
and the lover by declaring that,
although the
(2)
in question is quite
normal and has no special attributes,
this does not
(3
the man from
adoring her and considering their love
special and “
(4)
”. It is in the form of
appearance
couplet
divisions
English
four
girl
innovative
prevent
rare
walks
an
(5)
sonnet, the form typically used by
Shakespeare, and has
correspond to the
(7)
(6)
different parts which
of the sonnet form —
in the first, second and third parts the speaker
considers various aspects of his mistress’
(her hair, her lips, the way she
and in the final
(10)
(9)
(8)
, and so on)
he affirms that his love
needs no idealising, he is more than content
with reality.
Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (sonnet)
William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXXX
3