Prompt 3 - The Sonnet

     Foster in chapter four explains his preference with the sonnet and reveals that this preference comes from the poem's form. The poem has a sort of style - it is fourteen lines and is also shaped like a square. This provides it with a sort of identity. Foster believes the study of the sonnet is critical as there is so much to be taken from the short fourteen line poems. He writes that the poem never breaks out of its boundaries but instead uses the parameters to carry meaning. Each sonnet typically consists of two sentences, and therefore much must be said in each line to be effective.The structure impacts the effect as the poet must tinker with the poem until it is complete, perfecting each line to maintain flow and consistency. Foster continues that much of the beauty behind these poems comes from their length. He makes reference to thilose phopher Blaise Pascal who "apologized for writing a long letter," because he lacked the time to write a shorter letter. In this reference Foster is claiming that sonnets take longer than other sorts of poems as they must be crafted with the utmost detail. 

     I have read a few sonnets in my poetry units throughout school, but i found my favorite last year in AP english analyzing rhetoric. My favorite is "Sonnet 25" by none other than William Shakespeare - the man all sonnets, and all other literary works, derive from, according to Foster. I like this sonnet because it writes on the idea that man will never find approval in his works as he is sure to falter eventually. Shakespeare writes "After a thousand victories once foil'd, Is from the book of honor razed quite, and all the rest forgot for which he toil'd". Here Shakespeare claims that even a thousand victories one loss will this valor.