William FitzGerald Fall 2006
English 220 - Introduction to Literary Study


Homework for Wednesday, September 20:

To read:

This class will focus on the sonnet as a significant, recurring form in the English poetic tradition. A product of the Renaissance, generally, the sonnet continues to be a form many poets choose to work within, sometimes accepting its structure as agiven, sometimes challenging the form through experimentation. In your reading for class, consider the different forms of the sonnet as represented here. Consider the divsion of the sonnet into distinct parts--how can you tell when those parts begin and end? Consider the argument structure of the poem, that is, what claim is advanced and supported through the sonnet's development. In what ways does the form of the sonnet contribute to the poem's argument? What variations in rhyme scheme do you detect?

While there are many dozens of sonnets represented in our anthology, please look at these examples:

Sonnets 18, 29, 73, 130, 146, Shakespeare, p. 169

Sonnet 75, Spenser, p. 142

Sonnets 10, 14, Donne, p. 207

"When I Have Fears," Keats, p. 568

"The Silken Tent," Frost, p. 806

"next to of course god america," Cummings, p. 892

"the rites for Cousin Vit, " Brooks, p. 999