Sonnet 130

William Shakespeare

Petrarch

DOB20 July 1304

Petrarch• Francesco Petrarch (1304-74) was

responsible for establishing certain ideas about love-relationships. He wrote more than 300 sonnets addressed to an idealized lady named Laura, with whom he had never even had a conversation. These sonnets were enormously popular, and poets in Shakespeare's day were still using Petrarch's sonnets as models. One key Petrarchan notion is that the lover's love for a beautiful woman is not returned and he suffers as if from a bad flu (freezes and burns).

How could a guy fall in love with a person that

they had only ever seen once, in a

church?

Can you remember any characters of mine that may be a criticism of

this kind of love?

Romeo as a "Petrarchan lover" when he talks about Rosaline - he is "sick" and "sad," and "from love's weak childish bow she lives uncharmed."

• 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.

Iambic Pentameter

• baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM. • Here are some examples from the sonnets: • When I / do COUNT / the CLOCK / that TELLS / the

TIME (Sonnet 12) • When IN / dis GRACE / with FOR / tune AND / men’s

EYESI ALL / a LONE / be WEEP / my OUT/ cast STATE (Sonnet 29)

• Shall I / com PARE/ thee TO / a SUM / mer’s DAY? Thou ART / more LOVE / ly AND / more TEM / per ATE (Sonnet 18)

• Shakespeare’s plays are also written primarily in iambic pentameter, but the lines are unrhymed and not grouped into stanzas.

Can you fill in the gaps? Select the right option? Make notes.

See this link for more help with the sonnet.

• http://easthollywoodenglish.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/the-sonnet.ppt#264,8,Sonnet 130

Can you identify the stresses here?

• 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.