The Sonnet
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from Italian word sonetto, a little poem or a little song
•
invented during the Renaissance (early 13th century) in
Italy by Giacomo da Lentini
•
popularized by the Italian sonneteer Petrarch (Francesco
Petrarca) in his Rime sparse (scattered rhymes), a
sequence of 316 sonnets about his love for Laura
•
imported to England by Thomas Wyatt in the 16th century
•
since then the sonnet form evolved in both form (rhyme
scheme) and contents, originally about love, the sonnets
became the platform on which poets can write about God,
nature, war, politics, etc.
Italian or Petrarchan sonnet
Rhyme scheme:
abba abba cde cde
or
sestet
abba abba cd cd cd
octave
•
the first eight lines are called octave, in which the
main idea or argument of the sonnet is set up
•
the end of the eighth line or the beginning of the
ninth line may include the change of idea or the
turn of thought, called the turn or volta
•
the last six lines are call sestet; the sestet can
either be an elaboration on or a conclusion of the
main idea in the octave, or it can present a
counterargument to the idea set up in the octave
abba
abba
abab
abab
abba
abba
cdcd
bcbc
cde
cddc
efef
cdcd
cde
ee
gg
ee
Petrarchan
Wyatt’s sonnet
Shakespearean
Spenserian
sonnet
sonnet
sonnet
abba
abba
abba
abba
cde
cddc
octave
sestet
cde
ee
Petrarchan
Wyatt’s sonnet
sonnet
abab
abab
quatrain
cdcd
bcbc
quatrain
efef
cdcd
quatrain
gg
ee
Shakespearean
Spenserian
sonnet
sonnet
couplet
Petrarchan convention
•
Love poems about the longing which the speaker has for the superior lady, fair and
chaste (blonde hair, lips like coral, cheeks like roses, eyes like stars etc.)
•
The beloved lady is often called the mistress (the word meant the lady who is in
charge of the household or the lady of high status, but it didn’t have the modern
meaning of kept wife or a woman who has a sexual relationship with the married man)
•
The speaker is often an abject or forlorn lover (sad, gloomy, unhappy)
•
Unrequited (one-sided), unconsummated (no sex involved), and ultimately
unattainable love
•
Idolatry, women worship (the more impossible the love is, the more loyal is the
speaker to the lady)
•
Obedient love, constancy of the lover
•
Pleasure-in-pain
•
Sometimes the mistress is disdainful (is contemptuous of
the speaker)
•
She also has many admirers
•
She is a teaser who likes to build up hopes of many men
•
The speaker sometimes suspects that she is promiscuous
•
Still, because of her good qualities, the lover continues to
long for her
•
The devoted lover suffers from her real or imagined
inconstancy
•
•
Petrarchan conceits (an elaborate or extended metaphor)
•
Classical Mythology
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Pastoral traditions (roses, garden, seasons, etc.)
•
Ships and sea voyage
•
War
•
Hunting
Petrarchan hyperboles - the mistress is imagined to be
an ideal love object for the speaker, hence she holds an
immense power over the speaker and the natural world
typical abject or forlorn lover