The sonnet is like the legendary camel which, having put its nose into the tent to keep it warm, soon makes himself at home. Originally an Italian import, it has become the most popular, almost the regular figure in English. The sonnet originated in Sicily in the 13th Century with Giacomo da Lentino (1188-1240), a lawyer. The poetic traditions of the Provençal region of France apparently influenced him, but he wrote his poems in the Sicilian dialect. Some authorities credit another Italian, Guittone d'Arezzo (1230-1294), with originating the sonnet. The English word "sonnet" comes from the Italian word "sonetto," meaning "little song." Some early sonnets were set to music, with accompaniment provided by a lute.
Traditionally, the sonnet is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter and it sticks to a tightly structured thematic union. At the heart of the sonnet form is the idea of eloquence - the skilful display of words with admirable wisdom, brevity and wit. The sonnet is the emphatic statement of a dramatized self, that appeals to an imagined listener through a carefully selected set of arguments and explanations. The sonnet nearly always involves some progression of a single idea and some effort to arrive at a agreeable and true to life wrapping up.
More than two centuries before Shakespeare was born, Petrarch (1304-1374), a Roman Catholic priest, popularized the sonnet. Other popular Italian sonneteers were Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Italy's most famous and most accomplished writer, and Guido Cavalcante (1255-1300). The perfection of the Italian sonnet is generally associated with the work of Francesco Petrarca who became the most powerful inspiration for the love poetry of Renaissance Europe. Named after one of the greatest practitioners, the Italian poet Petrarch, the Petrarchan sonnet is divided into two stanzas, the octave (the first eight lines) followed by the answering sestet (the final six lines). The first stanza presents a theme, and the second stanza develops it with some abstract comment . The rhyme scheme is as follows: (1) first stanza (octave): ABBA, ABBA; (2) second stanza (sestet): CDE, CDE (or CDC, CDC; or CDE, DCE). On this twofold division of the Italian sonnet Charles Gayley notes: "The octave bears the burden; a doubt, a problem, a reflection, a query, an historical statement, a cry of indignation or desire, a Vision of the ideaL The sestet eases the load, resolves the problem or doubt, answers the query, solaces the yearning, realizes the vision." Petrarch is also recognized for widening sonnets into a storyline sonnet sequence, though this had been anticipated by Dante's ‘Vita Nuova’ written in praise of his beloved Beatrice. In France too, there was an outbursts of sonneteering in 16th century. The notable sequences were du Bellay’s Regrets and Ronsand’s ‘Amours’.
The sonnet form came to England comparatively later, --- in 16th century the form was introduced into England by Thomas Wyatt, who translated Petrarchan sonnets and wrote over thirty of his own in English. Surrey, shares with Wyatt the credit for introducing the form to England in ‘’Tottel’s Miscellany’’ as an early modifier of the Italian form. Sir Philip Sidney in his sequence “Astrophel and Stella” talks about his love for Stella, a married woman and deifies her as the star of his life. Spenser’s sequence, “Amoretti” talks about his real life experience of self-fulfillment when he courted his wife, Elizabeth Boyle. The Spenserian sonnet is a variation of the English sonnet with the rhyme scheme ABAB BCBC CDCD EE, in which the quatrains are linked by a continuation from the previous quatrain. A number of poets made an attempt at the sonnet in the late sixteenth century, as may be seen in Samuel Daniel’s sequence “Delia” or Constable’s ‘’Diana’’. Drayton uses the form to discuss intricate philosophical issues in “Ideas Mirrour”. The greatest sequence was, of course Shakespeare’s one fifty four sonnets which bear a wider range of possibilities. The Shakespearean form introduces an idea in the first quatrain, complicates it in the second, complicates it still further in the third, and resolves the whole thing in the final epigrammatic couplet. Shakespearean sonnets glow with great technical skill, intellectual puzzles and intriguing complexity of human emotions, while dealing with the traditional subjects of love and lust and faith and mistrust. Shakespeare addresses Sonnets 1 through 126 to an unidentified young man with outstanding physical and intellectual attributes. . Here, three quatrains and a couplet follow this rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. While in Sonnets 127 through 154, Shakespeare devotes most of his attention to addressing a mysterious "dark lady"–an opulent, enticing woman of dubious morals who captivates the poet. Possibly Shakespeare wrote his sonnets in London in the 1590's during an outbreak of plague that closed theaters and put a stop to playwrights from staging their dramas. Sonnets 138 and 144 were published in 1599 in a poetry collection entitled ‘’The Passionate Pilgrime’’ while the other sonnets were published in 1609. As to the identities of the young man speculations are made about Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton ; William Herbert, Third Earl of Pembroke; William Hughes: A boy actor; William Harte: Nephew of Shakespeare or William Hammond: A literary patron. The possible nominees for ‘’Black Lady’’ are Mary Fitton a woman of dark complexion who enjoyed a place in the court of Queen Elizabeth I; Anne Whateley a resident of Temple Grafton, near Stratford, whom Shakespeare at one time intended to marry ; Lucy Morgan a black woman said to be a prostitute and even Elizabeth I the Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. But so far, no one has produced enough undisputed evidence to identify any of these mysterious individuals by name. It should be noted that Shakespeare gave the theme of sonnet a new lease of life, he was ingenuous in introducing the theme of love as friendship in his sonnets. Against the background of so many sonnets, with the subject matter of unrequited love for a gorgeous lady, Shakespeare in his last sonnets came to treat a ‘dark lady’.
Though in the time of Renaissance, the sonnet was essentially a love poem Donne’s ‘’Holy Sonnets’’ dealt with religious themes which depict love between man and God.
The Miltonic sonnet is a Petrarchan sonnet which omits the volta and in "When I Consider How my Light is Spent" he enlarged the function of the sonnet to political and moral criticism and this has been followed by later poets. Finally the sonnet came to be used for any subject which a short, concentrated lyric would afford to evolve. Hence, we have Wordsworth’s ‘Composed Upon Westminister Bridge’, Keat’s ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’, Shelley’s ‘England in 1819’, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ and so many memorable sonnets by so many famous poets. Longfellow, Jones Very, G. H. Boker, and E. A. Robinson are generally credited with writing some of the best sonnets in America. William Ellery Leonard, Elinor Wylie, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and W. H. Auden have done distinguished work in the sonnet and the sonnet sequence in this century.
Already, the sonnet form has taken a unique position in the literary field. But the question inevitably comes is that why has it proved so popular? Perhaps ,though minute in extent, it has immense elasticity: it can have room for story elements; it can stage a brief dramatic scene; it can present a series of philosophical reflections; it can survey a vast variety of reflections, understandings and moods within a tightly organized structure.
Traditionally, the sonnet is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter and it sticks to a tightly structured thematic union. At the heart of the sonnet form is the idea of eloquence - the skilful display of words with admirable wisdom, brevity and wit. The sonnet is the emphatic statement of a dramatized self, that appeals to an imagined listener through a carefully selected set of arguments and explanations. The sonnet nearly always involves some progression of a single idea and some effort to arrive at a agreeable and true to life wrapping up.
More than two centuries before Shakespeare was born, Petrarch (1304-1374), a Roman Catholic priest, popularized the sonnet. Other popular Italian sonneteers were Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Italy's most famous and most accomplished writer, and Guido Cavalcante (1255-1300). The perfection of the Italian sonnet is generally associated with the work of Francesco Petrarca who became the most powerful inspiration for the love poetry of Renaissance Europe. Named after one of the greatest practitioners, the Italian poet Petrarch, the Petrarchan sonnet is divided into two stanzas, the octave (the first eight lines) followed by the answering sestet (the final six lines). The first stanza presents a theme, and the second stanza develops it with some abstract comment . The rhyme scheme is as follows: (1) first stanza (octave): ABBA, ABBA; (2) second stanza (sestet): CDE, CDE (or CDC, CDC; or CDE, DCE). On this twofold division of the Italian sonnet Charles Gayley notes: "The octave bears the burden; a doubt, a problem, a reflection, a query, an historical statement, a cry of indignation or desire, a Vision of the ideaL The sestet eases the load, resolves the problem or doubt, answers the query, solaces the yearning, realizes the vision." Petrarch is also recognized for widening sonnets into a storyline sonnet sequence, though this had been anticipated by Dante's ‘Vita Nuova’ written in praise of his beloved Beatrice. In France too, there was an outbursts of sonneteering in 16th century. The notable sequences were du Bellay’s Regrets and Ronsand’s ‘Amours’.
The sonnet form came to England comparatively later, --- in 16th century the form was introduced into England by Thomas Wyatt, who translated Petrarchan sonnets and wrote over thirty of his own in English. Surrey, shares with Wyatt the credit for introducing the form to England in ‘’Tottel’s Miscellany’’ as an early modifier of the Italian form. Sir Philip Sidney in his sequence “Astrophel and Stella” talks about his love for Stella, a married woman and deifies her as the star of his life. Spenser’s sequence, “Amoretti” talks about his real life experience of self-fulfillment when he courted his wife, Elizabeth Boyle. The Spenserian sonnet is a variation of the English sonnet with the rhyme scheme ABAB BCBC CDCD EE, in which the quatrains are linked by a continuation from the previous quatrain. A number of poets made an attempt at the sonnet in the late sixteenth century, as may be seen in Samuel Daniel’s sequence “Delia” or Constable’s ‘’Diana’’. Drayton uses the form to discuss intricate philosophical issues in “Ideas Mirrour”. The greatest sequence was, of course Shakespeare’s one fifty four sonnets which bear a wider range of possibilities. The Shakespearean form introduces an idea in the first quatrain, complicates it in the second, complicates it still further in the third, and resolves the whole thing in the final epigrammatic couplet. Shakespearean sonnets glow with great technical skill, intellectual puzzles and intriguing complexity of human emotions, while dealing with the traditional subjects of love and lust and faith and mistrust. Shakespeare addresses Sonnets 1 through 126 to an unidentified young man with outstanding physical and intellectual attributes. . Here, three quatrains and a couplet follow this rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. While in Sonnets 127 through 154, Shakespeare devotes most of his attention to addressing a mysterious "dark lady"–an opulent, enticing woman of dubious morals who captivates the poet. Possibly Shakespeare wrote his sonnets in London in the 1590's during an outbreak of plague that closed theaters and put a stop to playwrights from staging their dramas. Sonnets 138 and 144 were published in 1599 in a poetry collection entitled ‘’The Passionate Pilgrime’’ while the other sonnets were published in 1609. As to the identities of the young man speculations are made about Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton ; William Herbert, Third Earl of Pembroke; William Hughes: A boy actor; William Harte: Nephew of Shakespeare or William Hammond: A literary patron. The possible nominees for ‘’Black Lady’’ are Mary Fitton a woman of dark complexion who enjoyed a place in the court of Queen Elizabeth I; Anne Whateley a resident of Temple Grafton, near Stratford, whom Shakespeare at one time intended to marry ; Lucy Morgan a black woman said to be a prostitute and even Elizabeth I the Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. But so far, no one has produced enough undisputed evidence to identify any of these mysterious individuals by name. It should be noted that Shakespeare gave the theme of sonnet a new lease of life, he was ingenuous in introducing the theme of love as friendship in his sonnets. Against the background of so many sonnets, with the subject matter of unrequited love for a gorgeous lady, Shakespeare in his last sonnets came to treat a ‘dark lady’.
Though in the time of Renaissance, the sonnet was essentially a love poem Donne’s ‘’Holy Sonnets’’ dealt with religious themes which depict love between man and God.
The Miltonic sonnet is a Petrarchan sonnet which omits the volta and in "When I Consider How my Light is Spent" he enlarged the function of the sonnet to political and moral criticism and this has been followed by later poets. Finally the sonnet came to be used for any subject which a short, concentrated lyric would afford to evolve. Hence, we have Wordsworth’s ‘Composed Upon Westminister Bridge’, Keat’s ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’, Shelley’s ‘England in 1819’, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ and so many memorable sonnets by so many famous poets. Longfellow, Jones Very, G. H. Boker, and E. A. Robinson are generally credited with writing some of the best sonnets in America. William Ellery Leonard, Elinor Wylie, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and W. H. Auden have done distinguished work in the sonnet and the sonnet sequence in this century.
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