Sonnet 125 - Rhyme Scheme

Rhyme Scheme

Shakespearean sonnets, with few exceptions, follow a consistent fourteen line structure with three quatrains and a couplet, using iambic pentameter Often referred to as an “English sonnet” or “Shakespearean sonnet”, this type of poem uses the typical rhyme scheme of “a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g”. This poetic rhyme scheme finds it’s roots in the infamous Petrarchan sonnet form, but according to Raphael Lyne, Shakespeare’s sonnets are very different from Petrarchan sonnets, though no less emotionally complex and thematically profound.

According to Carol Thomas Neely, Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547) brought the Petrarchan sonnet to England and assimilated it into the English Renaissance culture by changing the traditional Italian rhyme scheme, “a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a” octet and the “c-d-e-c-d-e” sextet, to a more fitting English rhyme with three quatrains and a rhyme scheme of “a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f” with a final couplet, “g-g”. This form, in iambic pentameter, later became associated with Shakespeare, as a majority of Shakespeare’s sonnets follow this form with few exceptions.

As seen in Sonnet 125, the meter of the poem or the rhyme scheme is occasionally altered from the typical “a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g” structure. Sonnet 125 uses a varying rhyme scheme of a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-a-e-a, f-f, with “free” (line 10) and “thee” (line 12) corresponding to the rhyme of “canopy” in line 1 and “eternity” in line 3. There are many views as to why Shakespeare chose to vary the rhyme scheme in Sonnet 125.

Philip McGuire believes this type of free verse is meaningful. McGuire argues that Shakespeare, with his variation in verse, is claiming to not be a “dweller on form” (line 5) and “free” (line 10) from the repetitive form of the traditional “English sonnet”, adding to the symbolism contained in the lines. McGuire also states that the speaker of the sonnet exclaim’s that his “oblation” (line 10 ) to his beloved is “poor but free” (line 10) and “knows no art/, But mutual render, only me for thee” (lines 11-12) which directly pertains to the rhyme scheme, as rhyme in itself is “mutual render” (line 12), dependent on two separate words to exist. The speaker states that his art is “poor but free”, “poor” in a sense that it is missing one of the perfect seven rhymes found in typical sonnet structure, but has only six, an imperfect structure missing an important piece, alluding to the mindset of the speaker in his loss of the Fair Youth’s affections, directly corresponding to the “mutual render” embodied in the rhyme scheme and the “mutual render” he feels towards his beloved. In effect, the atypical character of the “mutual render” binding the a rhymes of sonnet 125 is a literal testimony of the selfless generosity that the speaker ascribes to the “mutual render” he and his beloved share - “only me for thee”.

Helen Hennessy Vendler agrees that Shakespeare’s variation in verse is a deliberate emphasis on the symbolism and meaning to the speaker’s words. Vendler comments on the intention of the rhyme scheme, claiming that Shakespeare as a poet is conscious of grammatical and syntactic possibility as “ingredients of invention” and he “routinely, but not idly, varies tense, mood, subject-position, and clause-patterns in order to make conceptual or rhetorical points”. Vendler acknowledges Shakespeare’s art within words and claims that any variation to the rhyme scheme is intended to add purpose to the poem itself.

Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells also argue that varying rhyme scheme is intensional but is not necessarily premeditated to attach further symbolism to the speaker’s words. Rather, states Edmondson and Wells, the altered rhyme scheme, if not only for the literal symbolism contained in the lines, is meant to keep the mind of the reader engaged. To go further, Edmondson and Wells believe that the variation of the rhyme mirrors the fluctuation of the poet’s emotions and thoughts as he writes, or the emotional uncertainty of the speaker, conveyed to the reader through the abnormal rhyme pattern.

Read more about this topic:  Sonnet 125

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