SONNET

WHAT IS SONNET

A sonnet refers to a short lyric consisting of 14 lines that follow a strict rhyme scheme. The sonnet traditionally reflects upon one single idea, with a volta or a specific ‘turn’ of thought in its concluding lines. The word sonnet is derived from the Italian word ‘sonetto’, which means a ‘little song’ or small lyric.

ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF SONNET

The 13th-century Italian poet Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the invention of sonnet during the time of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick-II in Palermo, Sicily. A number of followers practiced this new type of poetry; but the most famous early sonneteer was Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) commonly anglicized as Petrarch, 
who simplified the structure into an octave (eight-line stanza with the rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA) and a sestet (six-line stanza with the rhyme scheme of CDECDE or CDCDCD), thereby making it popular in Europe and rest of the world. Italian sonnet, being perfected and popularized by Petrarch, is also known as Patrarchan sonnet. Sonnet also became popular in France during the 15^th century and the main exponent of the art was Ronsard.
In English, sonnet was first introduced by Sir Thomas Wyatt and his contemporary Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey during Renaissance in the early 16^th century. Their sonnets were chiefly translations form the Italian of Petrarch and the French of Ronsard and others. While Wyatt adhered to the Petrarchan model, his contemporary Surrey developed 14 lines into three quatrains and a concluding couplet following the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, which now characterizes the English sonnet. William Shakespeare perfected English sonnet with his 154 numbers for which it is known as Shakespearean sonnet too. Both the Petrarchan and Shakespearean model of sonnet in English were written in iambic pentameter. Other ardent sonnet practitioners during Renaissance were Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, John Donne, George Herbert and John Milton.

After Milton, the sonnet declined in popularity. The fashion for sonnet went out with the Restoration, until it was taken up again by William Wordsworth during the Romantic period.  John Keats, P.B. Shelley Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Dante Gabriel Rossetti also wrote major sonnets. Sonnets were written throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries, but there were few very successful traditional sonnets. Modern tendency of experimentation has modified the nature and structure of sonnet resulting in a number of variations.

TYPES OF SONNET

Italian Sonnet (Petrarchan Sonnet)

Named after its great Italian practitioner Petrarch, Italian sonnet has two main parts- the octave consisting of 8 lines with a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA, and the sestet consisting of 6 lines with a rhyme scheme of CDCCDC or CDCDCD. In this type of sonnet, the octave forms a proposition by introducing a problem or asking a question, followed by the sestet which proposes a resolution in form of solution or comment to the problem or question asked. As such, the beginning of the sestet, typically, the ninth line initiates the move from proposition to resolution what is called ‘volta’ or the ‘turn’. Even if a  sonnet does not strictly follow the problem/resolution structure, the ninth line still often marks a ‘turn’ by signaling a change in the tone, mood, or stance of the poem. Some English version of the Italian sonnet preserved the rhyme scheme of the octave while altering it in the sestet.

Example:

Thomas Wyatt’s Whoso List to Hunt, I Know Where Is an Hind 

John Milton’s On His Blindness 

John Donne’s If Poisonous Minerals, and If That Tree  

William Wordsworth’s The World Is Too Much With Us

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s How Do I Love Thee 

English Sonnet (Shakespearean Sonnet)

The English sonnet, also known as Shakespearian sonnet after its great practitioner, is written in iambic pentameter. It falls into three quatrains (4 line stanza) and a concluding couplet, following the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The third quatrain generally introduces an unexpected sharp thematic or imagistic ‘turn’, the volta. In Shakespeare's sonnets, however, the volta usually comes in the couplet, and usually summarizes the theme of the poem or introduces a fresh new look at the theme.  

Example:

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 65 Sincebrass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 137 Thou blind fool, Love, what dostthou to mine eyes

Wilfred Owen’s Anthem forDoomed Youth

Claude McKay’s America 

Spenserian Sonnet

Practiced by Renaissance poet Edmund Spenser, Spenserian sonnet follows the form of English sonnet with certain innovations: the first line of the second quatrain rhymes with the last line of the first stanza, and the first line of the third quatrain rhymes with the last line of the second stanza, making a rhyme scheme of ABAB BCBC CDCD EE. The interlocking rhyme scheme of the Spenserian sonnet provides a more distinct connectivity between the quatrains compared to the English sonnet. Spenser write Amoretti, a sequence of 89 sonnets in this form.

Example:

Spenser’s Amoretti Sonnet LVII: Sweet Warriour when shall I have peace with you?

Spenser’s Amoretti Sonnet LXVII: Like a huntsman after weary chace

Spenser’s Amoretti Sonnet LXXV: One Day I Wrote her name upon the strand

Miltonic Sonnet

The Miltonic Sonnet is an improvised form of Italian sonnet with the rhyme scheme ABBAABBACDECDE. It is written in an unbroken stanza having no distinction between octave and sestet. There is no pause or change of direction at beginning of the sestet. The effect is like a long wave of words coming in, without ebb at all. The absence of any break between the octave and the sestet gives the verse movement a dignity which Milton mastered in all his 24 sonnets. Milton also took the sonnet out of the category of ‘love poems’ and brought it into the world of politics and social issues.

Example:

When I consider how my light is spent

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth

Terza Rima Sonnet

Terza Rima is an Italian stanza form of tercets, invented by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri in the late thirteenth century to structure his epic poem, The Divine Comedy.. It is a three line verse arrangement where the first and the third line rhyme together, the middle line is left to rhyme with the next stanza. It forms a series of tercets, each tercet sets the rhyme for the next, creating an interlocking pattern. The Terza Rima sonnet version is simply four Terza Rima stanzas with a concluding couplet that rhyme with second line of the preceding tercet. Sometimes, the couplet links back to the first stanza too. Terza Rima sonnets’ rhyme scheme is ABA BCB CDC DED EE. Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind is considered a series of five Terza Rima sonnets. (for further reading click here)

Example:

Ryter Roethicle‘s Suppose Idie, what would you think of me?

Maryse Achong’s A Little Gratitude Goes a Long Way

Jem Farmer’s Nightingale's Song

Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind

Curtal Sonnet

The curtal sonnet is a shortened version of sonnet devised by Gerard Manley Hopkins that maintains the proportions of the traditional form, but reducing the length upto 10​¹⁄₂-lines. In fact, it is three-quarters the length of a traditional 14-line sonnet. It substitutes two six-stress tercets for two quatrains in the octave (rhyming ABC ABC), and four and a half lines for the sestet (rhyming DEBDE).

Example:

G.M. Hopkins’s Pied Beauty

Caudate Sonnet

A caudate sonnet is an expanded version of the sonnet. It adds a coda (in Latin cauda means tail) to the standard 14-line sonnet.

Example:

Gerard Manley Hopkins’s That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire

Sonnet Redoublé

The sonnet redoublé, also known as a crown of sonnets, is composed of 15 sonnets that are linked by the repetition of the final line of one sonnet as the initial line of the next, and the final line of that sonnet as the initial line of the previous; the last sonnet consists of all the repeated lines of the previous 14 sonnets, in the same order in which they appeared. 

Example:

Marilyn Nelson’s A Wreath for Emmett Till

Sonnet Sequence

            A sonnet sequence, also known as sonnet series or sonnet cycle, is a collection of sonnets that address the same subject matter, which often involves a dramatic situation and/or a person. The sonnet sequence was a very popular genre during the Renaissance, following the pattern of Petrarch. The tradition of writing a sequence was initiated in English by Sir Philip Sidney in Astrophel and Stella in 1580. Some of the famous sonnet sequences are:

• Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella (1591), 108 sonnets and 11 songs thought to be addressed to Lady Rich, written between 1580 and 1584.
• Edmund Spenser’s Amerotti (1594), 89 sonnets addressed to his beloved (later wife) Elizabeth Boyle.
• Samuel Daniel’s Delia (1592), 50 sonnets.
• Fulke Greville’s Caelica (1633), 109 sonnets.
• Shakespeare’s Sonnet (1609), 154 sonnets to a variety of unnamed people, both male and female.
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), 44 sonnets to Rpbert Browning.
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s The House of Life (1870, 1881), 101 sonnets.
• Rupert Brooke’s Poems 1914, Five war sonnets.

 THEMES OF SONNET

The traditional subject of a sonnet is love, namely romantic love. Although sonnets have the subject of love in common, their loves are not all the same. The affections expressed in a sonnet differ depending on their object. Dante had written sonnets in honour of Beatrice with whom he was in love. Petrarch, who popularized the form through around 366 sonnets, wrote about his love for a woman named Laura, who never returned his love.  Sir Philip Sidney in his sonnet sequence prolonged argument aiming at overcoming his mistress's indifference and chastity; while Spenser wrote Amoretti to celebrate his courtship with his beloved Elizabeth whom he eventually married. On the other hand, Shakespeare celebrates love for his friend in one hand while addresses a mysterious dark lady who failed him in love.

However, while most of the English poets of the Renaissance retained the fleshly romantic currents of Italian sonnets, John Donne did the reverse. He turned from the secular subject of love to consideration of sacred themes in a group of nineteen Holy Sonnets. His Holy Sonnets apply the form to theological themes; Donne addresses God the way other sonneteers addressed their beloveds, and his metaphors sometimes have erotic qualities. Milton also took the sonnet out of the category of ‘love poems’ and brought it into the world of politics. He wrote sonnets on the themes of life, death and other serious social issues.