The Sonnet
A short history of the sonnet
• The term “sonnet” derives from the Italian “sonetto”, a “little
sound or song”.
• The first examples are those written by Iacopo da Lentini in 1230;
• The sonnet establishes its importance as a poetic form with
Petrarch’s “Canzoniere” (started in 1335);
• Petrarch describes his love for his beloved Laura using the typical
features of courtly love.
• The poet is a man who suffers because of a disdainful lady who is
beautiful, and often cruel;
• He feels contrasting sensations: happiness or sorrow, love or hatred
according to the presence or absence of the lady or to his different
states of mind;
Italian sonnet
• rigid structural form: the poet is asked to express his thoughts
and feelings in fourteen lines
Petrarchan sonnet
• Fourteen iambic pentameters divided into:
• two stanzas, one octave and one sestet, usually rhyming:
• ABBAABBA.
• CDECDE or CDCDCD (even if the rhyme scheme sometimes varies).
• The function of the octave is:
• to introduce a problem or a situation
• The function of the sestet is:
•
to provide an answer or comments on the situation and expresses the
personal feelings of the poet.
The sonnet in England
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1500 – 1542) – first English poet to introduce the
Italian sonnet to England.
• Initially, he simply translates the poems into English;
• then, to adapt the Italian pattern to the English language, he
leaves the octave unchanged and modifies the sestet dividing
it into a quatrain and a couplet.
• Sometimes Wyatt’s quatrain and couplet seem more like a
sestet;
• The Petrarchan theme of love remains unchanged.
• With the Earl of Surrey (c. 1517-1547) the final couplet
becomes separate from the quatrain and comments on the
previous twelve lines.
• Surrey also changes the octave into two quatrains with
different rhymes;
• The final pattern that distinguishes the Elizabethan sonnet
from the Petrarchan one consists of three quatrains and a
couplet, and its rhyme scheme is: ABAB-CDCD-EFEF-GG.
• The couplet is always epigrammatic: it has the function of:
 summing up the subject matter dealt with in the previous
twelve lines or ...
 reversing the meaning previously discussed.
Fortune
• The fortune of the genre is due to the publication of
“Astrophel and Stella” (1591) - a sequence of sonnets by
Philip Sidney.
• A sonnet sequence is a series of sonnets on a particular theme
addressed to a particular person.
The sonnet in England
Theme
• The commonest theme is love and in the case of Sidney, his love
with Stella.
• In accordance with Petrarch’s model, it is a conflictual love, full of
tenderness and bitterness, hatred and possession.
Spenser’s “Amoretti”
• Another important sequence of sonnets is the one written by
Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) entitled “Amoretti”, where the poet
celebrates his lady and, at the same time, deals with the theme of
immortality gained through poetry by both the poet and his beloved.
Shakespeare’s sonnets
• Published in 1609 but written in the last decade of the 16th century,
they are the greatest collection of English sonnets.
• They are clearly influenced by the Italian and classical tradition but,
at the same time, they are also highly original.
Metaphysical poets
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Their works are characterised by:
elaborate style
search for the unusual
intellectualism
most famous representative of metaphysical poets: John Donne
Cavalier poets
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Their works are characterised by:
classical elegance
clarity
most famous representative of Cavalier poets: Ben Jonson
Main characteristics of sonnets
• A fourteen-line poem in iambic*pentameter.
• A carefully patterned rhyme scheme.
• Invented by the Italian Iacopo da Lentini in the first half of the 13th
century.
• Introduced into England by Sir Thomas Wyatt.
• Two types of sonnet: Petrarchan and Shakespearean.
*Iamb: Type of foot made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
one
Table of comparison
Petrarchan sonnet
Shakespearean sonnet
14 lines of iambic pentameter
14 lines of iambic pentameter
Division into 2 sections:
the octave presents a problem
or situation
the sestet solves or clarifies
the situation
Division into 4 sections:
3 quatrains present a problem
or situation
a couplet solves or summarizes
the problem.
Rhyme scheme:
ABABABAB or ABBAABBA for
the octave
CDECDE or CDCDEE
for the sestet
Rhyme scheme:
ABAB Quatrain I
CDCD Quatrain II
EFEF Quatrain III
GG Couplet
Chivalric poem
• Very popular during the Renaissance period
• Developed in France and Italy and then spread all over Europe
• The “Faerie Queene” (1591- 1596) by Edmund Spenser is the best
example of this genre in England
• In his work, the poet creates an imaginary world in which knights,
ladies, fairies, gods and goddesses tell fantastic tales through which
he celebrates Queen Elizabeth and her court.
• The allegorical form of the poem allows the poet to contrast
Protestant England with her Catholic enemies such as the Vatican
The Christian epic poem
• The most important example of Renaissance epic is John Milton’s
“Paradise Lost”.
• The temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and man’s
loss of paradise are the main themes of this poem.
• The influence of Greek and Roman literature as well as of Christian
humanism are quite evident in Milton’s masterpiece