The Sonnet

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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.

The English Sonnet


The English poet Thomas Wyatt introduced the sonnet to the English language in the 16th century
by translating the works of Petrarch from Italian. Wyatt's contemporary, The Earl of Surrey, then
made innovations to the form by introducing a new structure and rhyme scheme, which became
the defining characteristics of the English sonnet: the fourteen lines are all written in iambic
pentameter and are taken up by three quatrains of four lines followed by a two-line couplet. The
lines follow the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
In the English sonnet, the turn typically occurs in the third quatrain, but William Shakespeare broke
from this rule by frequently situating the turn in the final couplet of his sonnets. In fact,
Shakespeare quickly became the English sonnet's most venerated practitioner, and the English
sonnet is often referred to as the Shakespearean sonnet as a result. The English sonnet is
sometimes also referred to as the Elizabethan sonnet. This famous example by Shakespeare
follows the typical rhyme scheme of the English sonnet, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. In this case,
Shakespeare places the turn in the usual location, in the sonnet's ninth line: "But thy eternal
summer shall not fade."
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 is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st 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.

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.

Milton's "When I Consider How My Light is Spent"


Milton wrote sonnets that were not about unrequited love, breaking with the Petrarchan and
Shakespearean traditions. Rather, Milton's sonnets were often meditations on life and death. This
sonnet follows the traditional Petrarchan rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA CDECDE:

When I consider how my light is spent


Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide;
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."

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

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;


Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much with Us"


This famous sonnet is an example of the Petrarchan form, though it was written in the 19th century
in English. William Wordsworth modeled his sonnets after the sonnets of John Milton, likewise
following the Petrarchan rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA CDCDCD.
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. --Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

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.

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