1_18 POWER POINT Petrarchan Sonnets

Bell Ringer 1/18
Italian poet, Francis Petrarch (Francisco Petrarca) was born in 1304 in Arezzo,
Tuscany.
Many of Petrarch’s sonnets are to/about a woman named Laura.
This woman is rumored to be Laura de
Noves, a married woman who Petrarch
supposedly saw for the first time in church
in 1327.
Petrarchan Sonnets
Format:
There is a strict structure of fourteen lines, which are separated into an
octave (eight lines) followed by a sestet (six lines).
A volta in between the octave and sestet signals a logical or emotional shift, or a
new beginning.
Content:
The octave typically describes a situation or presents a problem.
The sestet describes a change in the situation or a solution to the problem.
The octave and sestet may also present the same problem from two different
points of view, or the sestet intensifies the problem of the octave rather than
offering a solution.
Rhyme Scheme:
ABBAABBA CDECDE (sestet rhyme scheme could also be CDCDCD or
CDEDCE)
XLIII
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men might strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,–I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!–and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
One-line Summary of lines 1-8: The speaker loves the subject in multiple ways, as far and as much as humanly possible, and then
some.
One-line Summary of lines 9-14: The love the speaker has for the subject will only heighten after his death.
These days of mine, faster than a hind,
fly like shadows, and I have seen no more good
than an eye-wink, and few are the calm hours,
whose bitterness and sweetness I keep in mind.
5
Wretched world, violent and changeable,
wholly blind is he who sets his hopes on you:
my heart was stolen away from you, and now is taken
by one who is already earth, and looses sinew from bone.
But the better form of her that lives, still,
10
and lives forever, in the high heavens,
makes me more in love now with all her beauties:
and I see, only in thought, as my hair whitens,
what she is today, and in what place she is,
and what it was to see her graceful veil.
I dí miei piú leggier' che nesun cervo,
fuggîr come ombra, et non vider piú bene
ch'un batter d'occhio, et poche hore serene,
ch'amare et dolci ne la mente servo.
Misero mondo, instabile et protervo
del tutto è cieco chi 'n te pon sua spene:
ché 'n te mi fu 'l cor tolto, et or sel tène
tal ch'è già terra, et non giunge osso a nervo.
Ma la forma miglior, che vive anchora,
et vivrà sempre, su ne l'alto cielo,
di sue bellezze ogni or piú m'innamora;
et vo, sol in pensar, cangiando il pelo,
qual ella è oggi, e 'n qual parte dimora,
qual a vedere il suo leggiadro velo.
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3. Where does the turn take place? What changed?
4. There are number of related metaphors in lines 7-14. Identify them, and explain
how they are related and how they reinforce what at the speaker is saying.
(Lines 7-10): 3 examples (part 1) $
(Lines 11-14): 3 examples (part 1)$
5. Describe the tone of the sonnet.
Hint: look at the repeated words.