The Sonnet
The Sonnet
The Sonnet
A sonnet is a focused piece of poetry that takes up one central idea and deals with that , not in
entirety but in a short , focused and musical manner. It is one type of lyric poem, short, crisp and
concentrated. Overall, sonnets have 14 lines usually written in iambic pentameter, which is five
pairs of stressed and unstressed syllables. This overall structure of predetermined syllables and
rhyme makes sonnets flow off your tongue in a similar way that a song on the radio does.
There are two types of sonnets: the Italian and the English, or Shakespearean.
An Italian sonnet consists of an eight lines octave rhyming abba abba and a six lines sestet
rhyming in any of various patterns (such as cde cde or cdc dcd) It is also called Petrarchan
sonnet. Originating in Italy, the Petrarchan sonnet, named for the 14th century poet Francesco
Petrarca, is the oldest form of sonnet. This type differs from the Shakespearean but still has 14
lines.
The typical structure of the Italian sonnet is for the octave to contain what's called a "proposition,"
which establishes a problem (such as unrequited love) or a question (such as, "does she love
me?"). The sestet is concerned with resolving the problem or question, and it almost always
contains a "turn," which signals a shift in the poem's focus from problem to resolution. The turn is
sometimes also called a "volta" (the Italian word for turn), and it usually comes at the very
beginning of the sestet, in the sonnet's ninth line.
This sonnet by Petrarch is a perfect example of the form and subject matter of the typical Italian
sonnet. In the "proposition" of the octave, the poem establishes its dilemma and subject: the vanity
of the poet's passion for his beloved. This sonnet has an obvious "turn" in the ninth line (the phrase
"but now I clearly see"). This sonnet gives a strong example of how a turn works; it doesn't need to
be dramatic, but it subtly marks a shift in the tone or mood of the poem. The "resolution" in the
sestet is that the world's joy is "but a flitting dream." The sonnet employs the Petrarchan rhyme
scheme of ABBA ABBA CDEDCE.
Ye who in rhymes dispersed the echoes hear
Of those sad sighs with which my heart I fed
When early youth my mazy wanderings led,
Fondly different from what I now appear,
Fluttering 'twixt frantic hope and frantic fear,
from those by whom my various style is read,
I hope, if e'er their hearts for love have bled ,
Not only pardon, but perhaps a tear.
But now I clearly see that of mankind
Long time I was the tale: whence bitter thought
And self-reproach with frequent blushes teem;
While of my frenzy, shame the fruit I find,
And sad repentance, and the proof, dear-bought,
That the world's joy is but a flitting dream.
Modern Sonnet
In the 20th century, poets like Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Lowell, and W.H. Auden continued
to use and evolve the form of the sonnet by creating their own variations. These modern variations
are more extreme than the difference between Italian and English sonnets. Modern poets have
written unrhymed sonnets, "inverted" sonnets in which the sestet precedes the octave, and sonnets
with unusual rhyme schemes.
Although today when people refer to sonnets they usually mean the original form of the English or
Petrarchan sonnet, and some modern poets still write traditional sonnets, modern sonnets can
be any poem of 14 lines, with or without a rhyme scheme.
All sonnets have the following three features in common: They are 14 lines long, have a
regular rhyme scheme and a strict metrical construction, usually iambic pentameter. Iambic
pentameter means that each line has 10 syllables in five pairs, and that each pair has stress on the
second syllable
Both types follow a similar structure, with the main variation being a different rhyme scheme or the
pattern of end rhyme.
Some additional key details about sonnets:
Forhundreds of years, the sonnet form was reserved for poems about unrequited love, but since
the 17th century sonnets have been written about a wide variety of subjects.
Sonnets have become so popular, and are written in so many places, that over time many, many
variations of the sonnet form have evolved.
Sonnets are sometimes written in groups, where each individual sonnet can stand alone but are
also linked with the others in the group.
Here is an example of a Shakespearean sonnet focused on an intense love. See if you can notice the
melody.
'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often in his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.'
Another sonnet by Shakespeare that mocks the exaggerations by contemporary poets on love and
beloved which actually are nothing but impractical hyperboles:
Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Shelley's "Ozymandias"
Percy Shelley uses an entirely new rhyme scheme for this poem, another departure from the
traditional form of the sonnet. This variation's rhyme scheme is ABABACDC EDEFEF.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.