|
QUATORZAIN (from Fr. quatorze, fourteen) , the See also: term used in See also: English literature, as opposed to " sonnet," for a poem in fourteen rhymed See also: iambic lines closing (as a sonnet strictly never does) with a See also: couplet
.
The distinction was long neglected, because the English poets of the 16th century had failed to apprehend the true See also: form of the sonnet, and called See also: Petrarch's and other See also: Italian poets' sonnets quatorzains, and their own incorrect quatorzains sonnets
.
Almost all the so-called sonnets of the Elizabethan cycles, including those of See also: Shakespeare,
consist of three quatrains of alternate See also: rhyme, not repeated in the successive quatrains, and the whole closes with a couplet
.
A more perfect example of the form could hardly be found than the following, published by Michael See also: Drayton in 1602:
Dear, why should you commend me to my rest,
When now the See also: night doth summon all to sleep
?
Methinks this See also: time becometh lovers best,
Night was ordained together See also: friends to keep
.
How happy are all other living things
Which though the See also: day conjoin by several See also: flight,
The quiet evening yet together brings,
And each returns unto his love at night,
0 thou that See also: art so courteous unto all,
Why should'st thou, Night, abuse me only thus,
That every creature to his kind dost See also: call,
And yet 'tis thou dost only sever us
?
Well could I wish it would be ever day,
If, when night comes, you bid me go away
.
See also: Donne, and afterwards See also: Milton, fought against the facility and incorrectness of this form of metre and adopted the Italian form of sonnet
.
During the 19th century, most poets of distinction prided themselves on following the strict Petrarchan See also: model of the sonnet, and particularly in avoiding the final couplet
.
In his most mature See also: period, however, See also: Keats returned to the quatorzain, perhaps in emulation with Shakespeare; and some of his examples, such as " When I have fears," " See also: Standing aloof in giant ignorance," and " Bright See also: Star," are the most beautiful in See also: modern literature
.
The " Fancy in Nubibus," written by S
.
T
.
See also: Coleridge in 1819, also deserves See also: notice as a quatorzain of See also: peculiar beauty
.
|
|
|
[back] QUATERNIONS |
[next] QUATRAIN |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.