What characteristic unique to Shakespearean sonnets is found in "Sonnet 116 and Edna St. Vincent Millay “Love Is Not All”
Shakespearean Sonnets
The English sonnet was termed as the Shakespearean sonnet after the name of the most famous practioner of the form. The main characteristics of Shakespearean sonnets are:
1. It consists of three quatrains and a couplet unlike the Italian division of an octave and a sestet.
2. The meter is predominantly Iambic pentameter with each sonnet line consisting of ten syllables. The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet. An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.
3. The rhyme scheme of the three quatrains is abab cdcd efef and the couplet has the rhyme scheme gg.
4. Often, the beginning of the third quatrain marks the volta ("turn"), or the line in which the mood of the poem shifts, and the poet expresses a revelation or epiphany. The closing couplet seems to summarize the entire poem.
5. Originally used as a medium to express love, Shakespeare’s sonnets (as well as the later English sonnets) went on to explore different themes like friendship, passage of time, beauty and mortality.
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Now check the two sonnets named in your assignment, and determine how they are alike.
One characteristic unique to Shakespearean sonnets is the structure and rhyme scheme. Shakespearean sonnets are composed of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter, which means each line has ten syllables with emphasis on every second syllable. The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is ABABCDCDEFEFGG, where each letter represents a specific rhyme sound.
In relation to "Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare and "Love Is Not All" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, both poems do not fully adhere to the rigid structure of a traditional Shakespearean sonnet.
"Sonnet 116" follows the iambic pentameter and the ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme. However, "Love Is Not All" by Edna St. Vincent Millay does not strictly follow the iambic pentameter, and its rhyme scheme is not consistent with the ABABCDCDEFEFGG pattern. Millay's poem has a more irregular structure, with varying line lengths and a less rigid rhyme scheme.
Therefore, while both poems may share some characteristics of Shakespearean sonnets such as the exploration of love, they also deviate from the traditional structure, making them unique in their own way.
To identify the characteristic unique to Shakespearean sonnets found in "Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare and Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem "Love Is Not All," we need to understand the defining features of Shakespearean sonnets.
Shakespearean sonnets, also known as English sonnets, follow a specific structure. They consist of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter, which means each line contains five pairs of unstressed/stressed syllables. These sonnets are divided into three quatrains (four-line stanzas) and end with a rhymed couplet (two consecutive lines that rhyme). The rhyme scheme for Shakespearean sonnets is typically ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
Now, let's examine "Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare and Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem "Love Is Not All" to identify the unique characteristic of Shakespearean sonnets.
"Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare:
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
"Love Is Not All" by Edna St. Vincent Millay:
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I do not think I would.
Both poems have 14 lines and are written in the iambic pentameter form. However, there is a notable difference in the rhyme scheme. "Sonnet 116" follows the Shakespearean rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. On the other hand, "Love Is Not All" by Edna St. Vincent Millay does not strictly adhere to this rhyme scheme. The poem uses a looser scheme and does not have the same precise pattern as Shakespearean sonnets.
Therefore, the unique characteristic of Shakespearean sonnets found in "Sonnet 116" that is not present in Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Love Is Not All" is the strict adherence to the specific rhyme scheme (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG) commonly associated with this form of poem.