SONNETHistory & Form

SONNETHistory & Form

History of the Sonnet

Italian origins

Petrarchan conventions

English sonneteers

Italian Origins

Dante Alighieri

Francis Petrarch

Dante Alighieri

1265-1321

La Vita Nuova

Beatrice

Francis Petrarch

1304-1374

Rime Sparse

Laura

Petrarchan Conventions

dramatic situation

arrangement and organization

Petrarchan conceits

Dramatic Situation

introspective, autobiographical persona

conventions of courtly love (unrequited love

for an unattainable beloved)

no resolution

Arrangement & Organization

not chronological, no consistent narrative

each sonnet represents a specific moment

emotional roller coster

often includes songs as well as sonnets

Petrarchan Conceits

love as a war or a battle

love as a deadly disease or wound

love as torment or torture

love as bondage or slavery

love as a hunt

love as a ship on stormy seas

beloved as ruler or master

power of the beloved’s gaze

physical beauty of the beloved (blazon)

name of the beloved (puns)

immortalizing the beloved in verse

Petrarchan Conceits

pain and pleasure of

lovesickness

oxymoron and paradox

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,

O anything, of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness, serious vanity,

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,

Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

Romeo and Juliet 1.1.175-81

English Sonneteers

Sir Thomas Wyatt

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Sir Philip Sidney

Edmund Spenser

William Shakespeare

Sir Thomas Wyatt

1503-1542

translated some of Petrarch’s sonnets into English

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

1517-1547

invented the English sonnet rhyme scheme

Sir Philip Sidney

1554-1586

Astrophil and Stella

“Stella” / Penelope Rich

Edmund Spenser

1552-1599

Amoretti

Elizabeth Boyle

William Shakespeare

1564-1616

Shakespeare’s Sonnets

fair young man / dark lady

Sonnet Form

Rules of sonnet form

Italian sonnet

English sonnet

Spenserian sonnet

Rules of Sonnet Form

14 lines

iambic pentameter

strict rhyme scheme

Iambic Pentameter

pentameter five feet

foot a stressed syllable and one or more

unstressed syllables in a repeating pattern

Iambic Pentameter

iambic unstressed syllable followed by a

stressed syllable

repeat, insist, New York ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´

Iambic Pentameter

We mourn in black, why mourn we not in blood?

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day

Iambic Pentameter

We mourn | in black, | why mourn | we not | in blood?

The cur | few tolls | the knell | of part | ing day

˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´

˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´

Italian Sonnet

octave: 8 lines with 2

rhyme sounds {A/B}

turn (or volta)

sestet: 6 lines with 2 (or

3) new rhyme sounds

{c/d/e}

A A

octave usually

follows 1 of 2 set patterns.

sestet displays a

wide variety of patterns.

B B

B A

A B

A A

B B

B A

A B

c c c

d d d

e c d

c d c

d c e

e d e

Italian SonnetDear, cherish this and with it my soul’s will, A Nor for it ran away do it abuse. B Alas, it left poor me your breast to choose B As the blest shrine where it would harbor still. AThen favor show and not unkindly kill A The heart which fled to you, but do excuse B That which for better did the worse refuse, B And pleased I’ll be, though heartless my life spill. ABut if you will be kind and just indeed, c Send me your heart, which in mine’s place shall feed c On faithful love to your devotion bound. dThere shall it see the sacrifices made e Of pure and spotless love, which shall not fade e While soul and body are together found. d

English Sonnet

three quatrains: 4 lines

with 2 rhyme sounds

closing couplet: a pair

of rhyming lines

A

B

A

B

C

D

C

D

E

F

E

F

g

g

English SonnetDear, why should you command me to my rest AWhen now the night doth summon all to sleep? BMethinks this time becometh lovers best; ANight was ordained together friends to keep. BHow happy are all other living things CWhich, though the day disjoin by several flight, DThe quiet evening yet together brings, CAnd each returns unto his love at night. DO thou, that art so courteous else to all, EWhy shouldst thou, Night, abuse me only thus, FThat every creature to his kind doth call EAnd yet ’tis thou dost only sever us. F Well could I wish it would be ever day g If when night comes you bid me go away. g

three quatrains (with

interlocking rhymes)

closing couplet

Spenserian SonnetA

B

A

B

B

C

B

C

C

D

C

D

e

e

Spenserian SonnetMy hungry eyes through greedy covetize, A Still to behold the object of their pain, B With no contentment can themselves suffize: A But having pine and having not complain. BFor lacking it they cannot life sustaine, B And having it they gaze on it the more: C In their amazement like Narcissus vain B Whose eyes him starved: so plenty makes me poor. CYet are mine eyes so fillèd with the store C Of that faire sight, that nothing else they brook, D But loathe the things which they did like before, C And can no more endure on them to look. DAll this world’s glory seemeth vain to me, e And all their shows but shadows, saving she. e

Sonnet History & Form

Italian origins

Petrarchan conventions

English sonneteers

Rules of sonnet form

Italian sonnet

English sonnet

Spenserian sonnet

“Sonnet” by Billy CollinsAll we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now,

and after this one just a dozen

to launch a little ship on love’s storm-tossed seas,

then only ten more left like rows of beans.

How easy it goes unless you get Elizabethan

and insist the iambic bongos must be played

and rhymes positioned at the end of lines,

one for every station of the cross.

But hang on here while we make the turn

into the final six where all will be resolved,

where longing and heartache will find an end,

where Laura will tell Petrarch to put down his pen,

take off those crazy medieval tights,

blow out the lights, and come at last to bed.

the endthe end