Lesson Plans

Assignment to have been completed: Read “Chapter Fourteen – Pattern,” pp. 881-889, in Perrine’s Literature. They should also have written out responses to the first three items under Reviewing Chapter Fourteen on page 889.

Objectives:

1. To define structure, continuous form, stanzaic form, fixed form, limerick, and sonnet (Italian and English)
2. To describe sonnets structurally
3. To define villanelle by inductive reasoning

Activities:

• A. Review the language of structure (the arrangement of ideas, images, and thoughts)

  • 1. Continuous form - the lines of a poem follow each other without formal grouping but with breaks dictated by units of meaning

  • 2. Stanzaic form - the lines are arranged in repeated units of the same number of lines, usually the same metrical pattern, and often in identical rime scheme.

    A stanza form may be described by identifying four elements:

    • the rime scheme
    • the position of the refrain
    • the prevailing metrical foot
    • the number of feet in each line

  • 3. Fixed form - a traditional pattern that applies to a whole poem

    • a. Limerick - aa³bb²a³
    • b. Sonnet - fourteen lines of rhymed iambic pentameter
      • 1) Italian sonnet - an octave using two rhymes arranged abbaabba and a sestet using any arrangement of either two or three rimes; the division between the two usually indicates a division in thought and often is indicated with a space
      • 2) English sonnet - three quatrains and a closing couplet, riming abab cdcd efef gg; the units frequently correspond to divisions of thought

• B. Go over the answers to the exercise on pp. 888 - 889.

  • 1. Italian, strict in rhyme scheme but with a run-on in structure as the thought of the octave is not concluded until the middle of line 9
  • 2. Italian, strict in rime scheme and structure, with a slight variation in the sestet rime: ccdccd
  • 3. Italian, strict in rime scheme but with a variant sestet: cdccdd. Departs from Italian structure by running-on between the two quatrains of the octave.
  • 4. English, strict in rime scheme (more strict than usual in repeating the b rime as the d rime). Structure is broken by allotting portions to the speakers; Shakespeare effectively reinforces the increasing emotionality, when after matching a different speaker to each of the opening quatrains, he has them share the third quatrain and the couplet.
  • 5. English, strict in rime and structure; rhetorical break between lines 8 and 9 resemble Italian.
  • 6. English, strict through two quatrains, then an Italianate structural break signaled by line spacing and by insertion of the couplet at lines 9 - 10 rather than 13 - 14: ababcdcd ee fgfg
  • 7. Italian through line 8, then English: abbaabba cdcd dd; structured as English with separate metaphors developed in 1 - 4 and 5 - 8; then the third metaphor develops in 9 - 11, and 12 - 14 draw the last two metaphors together.
  • 8. Highly structured English, beginning and ending with quatrains: ababacdcedefef; structurally irregular
  • 9. Mixed; two English quatrains followed by Italian sestet: ababcdcd efgefg
  • 10. Italian, irregular: strictly rimed octave, sestet consisting of a couplet followed by English quatrain
  • 11. Mixed. Two English quatrains followed by a variant Italian sestet: ababcdcd effegg.
  • 12. Nonce sonnet: 14 lines of iambic tetrameter couplets. Arguably not enough formal resemblance to be called a sonnet

• C. Answer the questions about “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne, p. 890.

  • 1. What two figures of speech dominate the poem?

    The sonnet is one extended apostrophe, and the closing couplet depends on paradoxes of Christian faith.

  • 2. Why should death not be proud? List the speaker’s major reasons. Are they consistent? Logical? Persuasive?

    In the opening quatrain, the speaker asserts that death is neither mighty or dreadful. The speaker resorts to only two techniques of argument, neither logically admissible: the simple insistence that what “some” have said is not true, and the condescending tone of “poor death.” If it is a fact that people overthrown by death “die not,” then the final phrase of the quatrain is valid, for the syllogism is clear: death cannot kill men; I am a man; therefore, death cannot kill me. What is not established here, of course, is the universality of immortality, so the syllogism, though valid, has been based on an unproved major premise.

    In the second quatrain, he offers “proof” that death is not dreadful. He attempts to prove that death is not to be feared. But the two “proofs” are fallacious: lines 5-6 argue by analogy (death is like sleep; sleep gives pleasure; therefore death give pleasure), while line 7 employs the favorite device of advertisers, the “endorsement” of “our best men.”

    In the third quatrain, he offers “proof” that death is not mighty. The third quatrain, intended to prove that death is not powerful, opens with two illogical devices: name-calling (“slave,” because death is caused by other agents) and the aspersion of dwelling with evil neighbors. It returns to argument by analogy, insisting that drugs or spells induce a better sleep than death does, and then closes with another belittling condescension.

    The concluding couplet, in a tone of triumph, asserts that the case has been proved and that eternal life is our universal destiny. It does so in paradox, the death of death, which requires the only possible resolution, the faith of a believer in Christian salvation.

    While the speaker attempts to use reason and logical proof to shore up his opening remark, he unwittingly reveals the weakness of his reasoning, the falseness of his premise, and the desperation the would lead man to such an undertaking: he reveals a man stating a deep wish as if it were and easily demonstrable truth.

  • 3. Discuss the tone of the poem. Is the speaker (a) a man of assured faith with a firm conviction that death is not to be feared or (b) a man desperately trying to convince himself that there is nothing to fear in death?

    It is important to bring formal logic into the discussion of this poem, for the patent illogicality of the speaker is what makes the poem so moving. In his desperate need to reassure himself, the speaker is nevertheless the butt of dramatic irony, an example of the futility of attempting to prove an article of faith by means of reason—and so intensely in need of such proof that he argues fraudulently.

  • 4. In form this sonnet blends the English and Italian models. Explain. Is its organization of thought closer to the Italian or the English sonnet?

    This tightly constructed sonnet matches structure to form while producing some surprises for those acquainted with both the English and Italian sonnet forms. There are three quatrains and a couplet (as in the English sonnet), but the rhyming pattern is not abab cdcd etc., but abba abba cddc aa: the Italian quatrain is used in the English rhetorical structure, and the English closing couplet returns to the a rhyme, thus implying circularity.

• D. Distribute copies of analysis assignment. Instruct students to have their analyses ready at the beginning of the next class period.

Assignment for next class meeting: Fully analyze one of the two poems on the prompt given to you.