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 EnglandSir Thomas Wyatt (1500 – 1542) – first English poet to introduce theItalian 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.

• 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.

Fortune

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.

• 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.

Fortune

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.

• A fourteen-line poem in iambic*pentameter.

Main characteristics

• 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

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

Table of comparisonPetrarchan sonnet Shakespearean sonnet