Sonnet
A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines. The Italian poet Petrarch is recognised as the creator and master of this literary form. The term sonnet derives from the Italian sonnets, meaning a little sound or song. Although Sicily and Provence are the two possible places of its origin, the sonnet grew and thrived in Italy in the latter half of the thirteenth century under the influence of Petrarch.
Dante and Petrarch, the two noted Italian poets, wrote a series of sonnets expressing their passionate love for Beatrice and Laura, their sweetheart's respectively. The writing of sonnets to idealised Ladies remained a literary custom all over Europe for long afterwards.
There are three basic sonnet forms:
(a) The Petrarchan
(b) The Spenserian
The Petrarchan sonnet, also known as the classical sonnet or the Italian sonnet comprises an octave (A group of eight lines) rhyming abbaabba and a sester (A group of six lines) rhyming cde cde or cd cd cd, or in any combination except a rhyming couplet. The Spenserian and the Shakesperean forms have three quatrains an a couplet in common with differing rhymng scheme. The spenserian sonnet rhymes ab ab, bc bc, cd cd ee, whereas the Shakesperean ab ab cd cd ef ef gg.
The Petrarchan Sonnet-
The Petrarchan sonnet, developed from the sicilian strambotto (one of the oldest of Italian verse forms), consists of two quatrains to which are added two tercet's (A stanza of three lines each). The octave and the sestet in the Italian forms are systematically developed.
The octave develops one thought, and the sestet not only groups out of it but varies it and completes it. The earliest sonnets are attributed to Giacomo da Lention of the Sicilian school. Throughout the later Middle Ages, the sonnet form was used by all the Italian lyric poets such as Guinicelli, Cavalcanti and Dante.
They used it for love poetry. However, it was Petrarch who established the sonnet as one of the major poetic forms. Petrarch's conzoniere was a kind of encyclopaedia of love and passion. Several Italian poets, notably Serafinio all Aquila, Bembo, Michelangelo, Castiglione and Tasso, composed sonnets.
It was something after 1500 that first France and then England took up the fashion of sonnets in the manners of the Italians. The sonnet fascinated the poet all over its words. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it was largely practised by the French, Spanish, German and Portuguese poets.
The English Sonnet-
The sonnet comes into the English language via Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey early in the 16th century. Wyatt and Surrey, the well-known politicians and statesmen of England, visited Italy on a diplomatic mission. After their return from Italy. They started writing sonnets, which did not adhere strictly to the Italian form. Surrey introduced a different rhyming scheme, ab ab, cd cd, ef, ef gg. It was this form that was most used in England in the later 16th century. The first major sonnet cycle was Astrophel and Stella, written by Sir Philp Sydney.
The Spenserian Sonnet-
Edmund Spenser made a rich and sincere contribution to the sonnet form with his Amoretti sonnets. He devised another sonnet form. His sonnets consist of three quatrains and a couplet: abab, bc, bc, cd cd ee. Each of the three quatrains in the Spenserian variety as linked to the other. In his sonnets, the second rhyme of the first quatrain was introduced as the first rhyme of the second, and the second rhyme of the second quatrains as the first rhyme of the third. The couplet stands alone as in the Shakespearean sonnets.
The Shakespearean Sonnet-
The Shakespearean Sonnet follows the ryming scheme and pattern used by Surrey. It is divided into four parts and has no pause (eurhythmics) and turn of thought (Volta) at the end of the eighth line.
The ideas in this variety run up to the couplet. The climax of the thought in a Shakespearean sonnet is attained in the couplet. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets in all they were not printed until 1609. Some of them were circulated in manuscript for at least eleven years before their publication.
The Miltonic Sonnet -
The Miltonic sonnet belongs to the genre of the occasional verse. They are about a particular event, person or occasion. Milton did not write a sequence, and he did not make love the subject matter. His sonnets were written on the Italian model, but they often allowed the octave to run into the sestet. Some of the memorable Miltonic sonnets are: When the Assault was Intended to the city, to the lord General Cromwell and on the late Massacre in Piedmont.
Other English Sonneteers-
Among the other English sonneteers, John Donne, Thomas Gray, and Thomas Warton. William Wordsworth, John Keats, Shelley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Bridges, FG Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, George Moredith, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Rupert Brooke, Robort Frost, John Crowe Ransom and W.H. Auden have composed memorable sonnets.
Over 700 years, the sonnet form has been adapted to a remarkable variety of experimentation and development. Initially used to express the emotions of love by the Italian and Elizabethan poets, the sonnet has now become an effective instrument to carry a wide range of subjects, ranging from religion and politics to mundane activities of Modern man's tension-torn life.
