Elizabethan Sonnets: 16, 18, 29, 30, 71

Notes for AP English Literature
Sonnet 18
Volta is the turn in the sonnet. The volta occurs on line 9 and occurs on “But thy eternal summer shall not fade.
1. What aspects of a summer day are used in this comparison with the beloved? Are any of them favorable?

More temperate means softer, gentler, in the middle

Her (Beloved)
She is lovelier than the summer
She is more temperate

Summer:
It shakes the darling buds (it’s rough)
It’s too short
It’s too hot and bright
And often is his gold complexion dimmed.
SUMMER THUNDERSTORMS!!!!!!!
And every fair from fair sometimes declines
By chance of nature’s changing course untrimmed
Fair means beauty
This means the poem he wrote about her.
Theme is a statement.
The theme of Sonnet 18 is that
Her beauty is of a time period but is still short.
That anything can live on forever in writing.
That the writer will live on forever in his/her works.
Beauty is short lived and will die, but the physical beauty will achieve immortality through its exaltation through art.

Sonnet 71
Tone of the speaker is sadistic
Tone of the speaker is mordant
Martyrdom
Melancholic

Soapstone
Speaker
Occasion
Audience
Purpose
Subject
Tone

Assignment:
Find the soapstones and the volta for sonnets 29, 30, 71 and 116. Answer the questions for each sonnet and also do “Applying: Connotation/Denotation”, questions 1, 2, and 3.

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