Poetry: Sonnets, Villanelles, and Odes

Today, we'll be looking at some of the more popular poetic forms from Europe.

Sonnets

Sonnets are poems typically consisting of fourteen lines.

There are many different types of sonnets, but the two most common are the Italian sonnet and the English sonnet, popularized best by William Shakespeare.

Italian sonnets (also known as Petrarchan sonnets) begins with an octave (two quatrains, or four-line sections) which describes a problem or a situation that needs to be resolved. The octave is followed by a sestet (two tercets, or three-line sections) that solves the problem by suggesting a resolution. The ninth line (the first line of the sestet) usually serves to change from problem presentation to problem resolution (it is sometimes called the turn). A common rhyme scheme of Italian sonnets is ABBA ABBA CDC CDC or ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. Less often, the rhyme scheme can be ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. (This makes the sestet look more like three couplets than two tercets.)

The English sonnet (or the Shakespearean sonnet) is usually written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is usually ABAB ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

Villanelles

Villanelles are nineteen-line poems that start with five tercets and end with a quatrain. They usually don't tell a story, because they follow a very specific system of refrains: The first and third lines of the first stanza are used as two refrains that end each of the other tercets. Perhaps a diagram is the best way to explain a villanelle's structure:

Refrain 1
Line 2
Refrain 2

Line 4
Line 5
Refrain 1

Line 7
Line 8
Refrain 2

Line 10
Line 11
Refrain 1

Line 13
Line 14
Refrain 2

Line 16
Line 17
Refrain 1
Refrain 2

The rhyme scheme here is ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA. For those of you who have never read the liner notes of a CD (is my age showing already?) a refrain is a repeated line, like the chorus of a song.

Odes

Odes come to us from ancient Greece. Normally, odes are meant to be used to celebrate the glory of an individual or an event. (Think of Hercules and Odysseus and wars.)

Odes have complicated structural rules (or, depending on how you see it, have very few rules at all). The English ode has no "usual" meter, but its typical rhyme scheme is ABABCDECDE.

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On Thursday, I'll discuss some Asian poetic forms!