Unit Two - Renaissance Sonnets

Shakespeare = ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Spenser = ABAB BCBC CDCD EE


2. Which rhyme scheme do I prefer?

   At first I preferred Spenser’s sonnets due to their simplicity, but when I took a closer look at his rhyming scheme, I realized he was partially restricting his word choices. Spenser’s Bs and Cs carry on throughout two quatrains, which would, depending on the words being rhymed, limit him considerably. This, I deduce, would make it much harder to write a sonnet.
   Therefore, I favor Shakespeare’s rhyme scheme, where each quatrain contains two new pairs of rhyming words. I think this would be a lot easier than carrying on rhyming words, although writing a sonnet in iambic pentameter is difficult no matter what scheme you choose…

3. Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and Spenser's Sonnet 30.

Sonnet 18
William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (A)

Should I compare you to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate. (B)

You’re lovelier and steadier (than a summer’s day).

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (A)

If you were a summer’s day, I’d be saying you would blow away in the harsh winds.

And summer's lease hath all to short a date. (B)

Summer is far too short to represent you.

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Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, (C)

Sometimes the sun is too hot.

And often is his gold complextion dimmed, (D)

Often there are storms which hide the sun.

And every fair from fair sometimes declines, (C)

Everything beautiful will eventually stop being beautiful…

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed. (D)

either by chance or by nature.

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But thy eternal summer shall not fade, (E)

Your “summer qualities” will always be present.

Nor lose possesion of that fair thou owest, (F)

You will always be fair; it will not “decline”.

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade (E)

You’ll never show signs of “death” and “decay”.

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st. (F)

In poetry, your beauty is represented for eternity.

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So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, (G)

So long lives this, and gives life to thee. (G)

As long as this poem exists, and there are men to read it, it will continue to represent and display your beauty.

Sonnet 30
Edmund Spenser

My love is like to ice, and I to fire; (A)

I am burning with love and my “love” (person) as cold as ice.

How comes it then that this her cold so great (B)

Why is she so cold?

Is not dissolved through my so hot desire, (A)

My burning love will not melt her cold demeanor.

But harder grows the more I her entreat? (B)

Why is it that the more I pursue her, the “harder her ice gets”?

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Or how comes it that my exceeding heat (B)

Is not delayed by her heart frozen cold, (C)

Why does my burning love not cease from how cold she is?

But that I burn much more in boiling sweat, (B)

And feel my flames augmented manifold? (C)

Why, in spite of her cold heart, does my love just keep growing?

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What more miraculous thing may be told (C)

That fire which all thing melts, should harden ice, (D)

It’s miraculous for fire to harden ice.

It’s miraculous for my love for her to make her love me less.

And ice which is congealed with senseless cold, (C)

Should kindle fire by wonderful device? (D)

It’s also miraculous for ice to kindle a fire so quickly and well.
It’s miraculous for your “senseless dislike of me” to further fuel my love.

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Such is the power of love in gentle mind, (E)

That it can alter all the course of kind. (E)

Love defies all odds. Love doesn’t make any sense. Love does not follow the rules of nature (a.k.a. everything else).

4. Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 and Spenser's Sonnet 75.

Sonnet 29

William Shakespeare




When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, (A)


When I am misfortunate and viewed as so


I all alone beweep my outcast state (B)


I weep alone from my misfortune


And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries (A)


While Heaven ignores my useless cries


And look upon myself and curse my fate, (B)
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Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, (C)


Wishing I could be more hopeful.


Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd, (D)


He’s popular and has many friends, which I want.


Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, (C)


Desiring other men’s talents and productions.


With what I most enjoy contented least; (D)


What I most enjoy is not even pleasurable to me.
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Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, (E)


Yet, as I nearly despise myself,


Haply I think on thee, and then my state, (B)


I happily think about you, and my current standing,


Like to the lark at break of day arising (E)


Like a rising bird in the morning


From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate; (B)


Is joyous

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 For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings (G)


Remembering your love brings me wealth


That then I scorn to change my state with kings. (G)


And I wouldn’t trade that for the wealth of a king.



Sonnet 75

Edmund Spenser


One day I wrote her name upon the strand, (A)
--
But came the waves and washed it away: (B)
--
Again I wrote it with a second hand, (A)


I tried again,


But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. (B)


But the water washed away my hard work.
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Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay (B)


She calls me vain


A mortal thing so to immortalize, (C)


For trying to immortalize her.


For I myself shall like to this decay, (B)


Because one day she will be gone just like the name being washed away.


And eek my name be wiped out likewise. (C)


And her name will also be forgotten.
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Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise (C)


Lower things will


To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: (D)


die, but you’ll live on in fame.


My verse your virtues rare shall eternize, (C)


My poems will eternalize your rare virtues


And in the heavens write your glorious name. (D)
--
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Where whenas Death shall all the world subdue, (E)


When Death takes over the world,


Our love shall live, and later life renew. (E)


Our love will remain eternal.