Sonnets #1
How many lines are in a sonnet?
(PLEASE GET THIS)
14
What is unrequited love?
Love that is not reciprocated by the love object (aka beloved)
Which text that we've covered is an example of alliterative verse?
Beowulf
What is the name for the personal books that Renaissance learners would develop, where they would compile various writings into different categories?
Commonplace books
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, alas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I, by no means, my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore,
Fainting I follow. I leave off, therefore,
Since in a net I seek to hold the wind...
Wyatt, "Whoso list to hunt"
What is the term for the cataloging and praising of the beloved's features (usually metaphorical and very drawn-out)?
Blazon
Based on rhyme scheme alone, does this indicate a Shakespearean or Petrarchan sonnet?
ABAB
CDCD
EFEF
GG
Shakespearean
What is the genre of the Canterbury Tales technically called?
Estates Satire
What is one component of Renaissance humanism?
Translation of classical texts, focus on the individual, human potential, self-fashioning, etc.
Then a powerful demon, a prowler through the dark,
nursed a hard grievance. It harrowed him
to hear the din of the loud banquet
every day in the hall, the harp being struck
and the clear song of a skilled poet
telling with mastery of man’s beginnings,
how the Almighty had made the earth
a gleaming plain girdled with waters...
Beowulf
What is the poetic meter of Shakespeare's sonnets?
Iambic pentameter
Before Shakespeare, there was another poet responsible (more or less) for transporting the sonnet into English. What is this poet's name?
(Hint: I brought him up in class last week)
Wyatt
Marie de France wrote a series of short romances, including "Lanval." What is the term for these medieval romances?
Breton lays
Define "kenning," and provide an example of one.
A metaphorical compound term
Ex: "whale-road"
Whan that April with his showres soote
The droughte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veine in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flowr;
Whan Zephyrus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye
Chaucer, General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
In class, we've covered the sonnets from a total of four different poets. What are the names of these poets?
Petrarch, Wyatt, Sidney, and Shakespeare
What is the conceit of a sonnet?
The elaborate and extended metaphor encompassing the entire length of the poem
Explain the Renaissance concept of self-fashioning.
The self-assertion of the individual; the idea that we can craft ourselves as if a work of art
Explain the difference between a "kenning" and "keening."
Kenning: a metaphorical compound term
Keening: the act of wailing in grief
Neither let it be deemed too saucy a comparison to balance the highest point of man’s wit with the efficacy of nature; but rather give right honor to the heavenly Maker of that maker, who having made man to His own likeness, set him beyond and over all the works of that second nature: which in nothing he showeth so much as in poetry...
Sidney, The Defense of Poesy