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.
• The Petrarchan theme of love remains unchanged.
• Sometimes Wyatt’s quatrain and couplet seem more like a sestet;
• It is only with the Earl of Surrey (c. 1517-1547) that the final
couplet becomes separate from the quatrains 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 pattern from
the Petrarchan one consists of three quatrains and a couplet, and
its rhyme scheme is: ABAB-CDCD-EFEF-GG.
The sonnet in England
• 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.
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.
The sonnet in England
• 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 “Atrophel 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.
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 conflicting love, full of
tenderness and bitterness, hatred and possession.
Main characteristics
• 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
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