Selections from Wordsworth and Tennyson — John Shaqi
Selections from Wordsworth and TennysonTennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron
General
Selections from Wordsworth and Tennyson
Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron
English poetry -- 19th century
(3) There is not only a metrical division between the octave and the
sestet, but the character of the thought also undergoes a subtle change
at that point. It is to be understood, of course, that in the whole poem
there must be both unity of thought and mood. Yet, at the ninth line,
the thought which is introduced in the octave is elaborated, and
presented as it were under another aspect. As Mr. Mark Pattison has
admirably expressed it: "This thought or mood should be led up to, and
opened in the early lines of the sonnet; strictly, in the first quatrain;
in the second quatrain the hearer should be placed in full possession of
it. After the second quatrain there should be a pause--not full, nor
producing the effect of a break--as of one who had finished what he had
got to say, and not preparing a transition to a new subject, but as of
one who is turning over what has been said in the mind to enforce it
further. The opening of the second system, strictly the first tercet,
should turn back upon the thought or sentiment, take it up and carry it
forward to the conclusion. The conclusion should be a resultant summing
the total of the suggestion in the preceding lines. . . . While the
conclusion should leave a sense of finish and completeness, it is
necessary to avoid anything like epigrammatic point."
(4) An examination of the rimes again will show that greater strictness
prevails in the octave than in the sestet. The most regular type of the
octave may be represented by a b b a a b b a, turning therefore upon two
rimes only. The sestet, though it contains but six lines, is more
liberal in the disposition of its rimes. In the sonnet which we are
examining, the rime system of the sestet in c d d e c e--containing, as
we see, three separate rimes. In the sestet this is permissible,
provided that there is not a riming couplet at the close.
(5) Again, with reference to the rime, it will be observed that the vowel
terminals of the octave and the sestet are differentiated. Anything
approaching assonance between the two divisions is to be counted as a
defect.
(6) It is evident that there is unity both of thought and mood in this
sonnet, the sestet being differentiated from the octave, only as above
described.
(7) It is almost unnecessary to add that there is no slovenly diction,
that the language is dignified in proportion to the theme, and that there
is no obscurity or repetition in thought or phraseology.
These rules will appear to the young reader of poetry as almost
unnecessarily severe. But it must be remembered that the sonnet is
avowedly a conventional form (though in it much of the finest poetry in
our language is contained), and as such the conventional laws attaching
to all prescribed forms must be observed to win complete success.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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