Page 159 - DENG103_English - I

English–I

Notes The rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet is somewhat variable; in this case, the octave follows
a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA, and the sestet follows a rhyme scheme of CDCDCD. In most
Petrarchan sonnets, the octave proposes a question or an idea that the sestet answers, comments
upon, or criticizes.

Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:
4. ‘‘The World is Too Much With Us’’ is written by
(a) Milton (b) Keats
(c) Shelley (d) Wordsworth

5. “The World is Too Much With Us” is a
(a) sonnet (b) elegy
(c) allegory (d) none
6. In ’‘The World is too Much With Us” Wordsworth gives a fatalistic view of the world,
(a) past and future (b) present

(c) present and future (d) none
7. A Petrarchan sonnet is divided into
(a) two parts (b) three parts
(c) eight parts (d) seven parts
8. The octave follows a rhyme scheme of

(a) AAABBBB (b) ABBAABBA
(c) DDDAAAB (d) BBBCCCAAA
9. The sestet follows a rhyme scheme of
(a) CDCDCD (b) CCCDD

(c) CDCCC (d) none
16.4 Summary

• In the early 19th century, Wordsworth wrote several sonnets blasting what he perceived
as “the decadent material cynicism of the time.” “The World Is Too Much with Us” is
one of those works.

• This poem is one of the many excellent sonnets Wordsworth wrote in the early 1800s.
Sonnets are fourteen-line poetic inventions written in iambic pentameter.

16.5 Keywords

Sonnet : A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme
schemes.
Sestet : The last six lines of a sonnet
Octave : A series of eight notes occupying the interval between two notes

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