The various lyric and narrative poems from which I have quoted in Chapters One to Nine contain, on the whole, fixed rhythmic patterns: that is, there seems to be only one plausible way of allocating stress when reading aloud. This contrasts with dramatic verse like the Shakespeare speeches referred to in Chapter Ten. Sonnets, however, have characteristics in common with both lyric and dramatic verse.
Like lyrics, sonnets have clearly patterned metrical structures. They usually appear to celebrate an important moment in the poet’s life, sometimes genuinely personal, sometimes conventionally so. One very obvious difference from the lyric, apart from the restrictions on form, is the organized thought-structure of the sonnet. To define the sonnet, it is not enough to specify metrical shape and length, as one can with individual lyrics: to say, that is, that the sonnet in England normally consists of fourteen five-foot lines. (A very few sonnets, primarily those of Sidney and Hopkins, have six feet per line, copied from the syllable-timed French pattern: all European sonnets ultimately derive from an Italian tradition.) A second part of the definition of the nature of a sonnet is insistence on concentration on one idea or thought. In the English or Shakespearean sonnet the central idea is presented from three slightly different viewpoints, or in three complementary clusters of images, as three quatrains (or bundles of four lines) rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF; a witty or apt comment or conclusion appears in the final rhyming couplet GG. (It is conventional to label the first line of a poem as A and also to label as A any other lines whose last word or syllable rhymes with the end of the first line. When a new rhyme-sound appears, the line containing it is called B, and so on. Thus Little Jack Horner rhymes: AABCCB.) The Miltonic or Italian sonnet tackles its theme in two sections: the first octave (eight lines), rhyming ABBAABBA, puts a point of view or presents an argument: the final sestet (six lines) with three rhymes, most often in the sequence CDECDE, resolves the argument or offers a different angle on the subject.
This tight structure, together with the personal tone, makes the sonnet ideal as a love poem. Most early English sonnets are love poems addressed by a man to a woman (except of course for some of Shakespeare’s) who may be real, idealized or entirely fictional. Later, the so-called occasional sonnet came into fashion, commenting on important historical or personal events, or reflecting on human nature and behaviour in significant situations.
Whatever the subject matter, the sonnet as a rule either addresses one particular person or personified idea, or expresses joy or grief about some part of human experience (such as love or sleep or war or our attitude to nature). It follows from this that the sonnet is highly rhetorical in tone. The traditional form most often begins with a direct address, imperative, or question, like an impassioned speech in a play. Here are some well known sonnet openings:
While sonneteers, conscious of the metric form of the sonnet, count not only lines and feet, but also syllables (not often before Hopkins do you find a line of a sonnet which does not have either ten or, more rarely, eleven syllables), they are nevertheless as free as any dramatist in the way in which they present large numbers of lines for which the scansion is not fixed: that is, where the speaker has a choice of emphasis and expression.
Try marking the scansion of this sonnet of Shakespeare’s.
Lines 1, 2, 7, 11 and 12 are the most slippery. Here is a possible version: how far does yours agree with it?
It seems to me that lines 1, 2, 7, 11 and 12, more than a third of the whole poem, throw up as many possibilities of expression and emphasis as do some lines from Shakespeare’s later plays. I have certainly heard several different readings from competent performers: here are a few of these.
Now pencil in, according to your own reading, the foot boundaries for all the opening lines of sonnets quoted above. This should give you some more puzzles and some more practice in careful listening. Remember to read the words for the sense and not according to some primitive notion of sing-song rhythms: these are not rhymes to be chanted in the playground to regulate the turn of the rope in skipping games.
Some of Wordsworth’s sonnets seem flat and uninspired, but one that stands out for its musical power is the Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802. (He wrote it just before sailing with Dorothy to France to see his illegitimate daughter for the first time.) Read it aloud and enjoy it: then try marking your scansion.
The Romantic poet structures his sonnet traditionally with exactly ten syllables in almost every line. However, the words are not arranged in such a way that in each line strong and light syllables naturally alternate. Line 6, Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie, (with possibly eleven syllables) is an interesting example. Indeed, if you did not know that this was a line from a sonnet, you would naturally read it with six beat syllables. Whereas with earlier poems you may frequently want to stress a syllable which in spontaneous speech would be unstressed, from the last part of the eighteenth century onwards, and especially in sonnets, you will, conversely, want to lighten for metrical purposes a syllable which in speech and prose would carry a beat. This trait is particularly common in the sonnets of Gerard Manley Hopkins who, as a revolutionary of great influence, demands a chapter all to himself.
Mark now your scansion of Wordsworth’s sonnet above. For comparison, here is my version.
As you read, try to allow the same time-stretch for each line: it is the line and not the foot that is the dominant metric unit. Smooth the syncopated feet, like a competent jazz musician: do not allow a whole silent thump or beat before the light syllables. Remember always to read for the sense. If you have more than one regional accent available, try the sonnet in two or three. In my favoured reading I have ten trisyllabic feet, ten monosyllabic feet and five syncopations. Moreover there seem to me to be possible variant ways of reading nine of the fourteen lines: we are very close to the style of dramatic verse here.
The well written sonnet is delightful but taxing to read aloud: it requires experiment and practice. I find it one of the most satisfying poetic forms to write and to speak.