An Introduction to the Sonnet

What is Sonnet?

The term sonnet is derived from the Italian

word sonetto means little poem where Son means song or Sonus means sound. it is a
poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure.

It is a poetic form which originated in Italy, Giacomo Da Lentini, head of the Sicilian
School under Emperor Frederick II is credited with its invention. He wrote almost 250
sonnets during thirteenth century.

Writers of sonnets are sometimes called "sonneteers.

The Italian Sonnets and Its Structure

The structure of a typical Italian sonnet has two parts that together formed a compact
form of "argument".

The Octave or two Quatrains forms the "proposition", which describes a "problem", or
"question", followed by a sestet or two tercets which proposes a "resolution".

The Octave: An octave is a verse form consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter.
The most common rhyme scheme for an octave is abba abba.

The Sestet: It consists of an octave, of eight lines, succeeded by a sestet, of six lines
cd cd cd.

The Italian Sonnets and Its Structure

Typically, the ninth line initiates what is called the "turn", or "volta", which signals the
move from proposition to resolution. Even in sonnets that don't 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.

The structure: a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a pattern became the standard for Italian sonnets. For the
sestet there were two different possibilities: c-d-e-c-d-e and c-d-c-c-d-c. In time, other
variants on this rhyming scheme were introduced, such as c-d-c-d-c-d.

The Example of Italian or Patrarchan Sonnets

The most famous early sonneteer was

Petrarca (known in English as Petrarch) after whom the Italian Sonnets are called
Petrarchan Sonnets.

Other fine Examples were written by

Michelangelo. Here is one Example of Petrarchan sonnet to understand the structure of it
:

In what bright realm, what sphere of radiant thought

Did Nature find the model whence she drew

That delicate dazzling image where we view

Here on this earth what she in heaven wrought

What fountain-haunting nymph, what dryad, sought

In groves, such golden tresses ever threw

Upon the gust? What heart such virtues knew?

Though her chief virtue with my death is fraught.

He looks in vain for heavenly beauty, he

Who never looked upon her perfect eyes,

The vivid blue orbs turning brilliantly

He does not know how Love yields and denies;

He only knows, who knows how sweetly she

Can talk and laugh, the sweetness of her sighs.

Translation by Joseph Auslander

Practices of Sonnets in Different Languages

Though the origin is in Italy Sonnets are written and practiced in different parts of the
world by different Sonneteers.

1.Dantes Sonnet :

2.Occitan sonnet:
3.English Sonnet:

4.Spenserian sonnet: named after Edmund Spenser(c.15521599), in which the rhyme

scheme is abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee.

5.Urdu Sonnet:

6.Modern Sonnet:

In English, both English type (Shakespearean) sonnets and Italian type (Petrarchan)
sonnets are traditionally written in Iambic Pentameter lines.

English Sonnets or Shakespearean Sonnets

English sonnets were introduced by Thomas Wyatt(1501-42) in the early 16th century.

His sonnets were chiefly the translations from the Italian of Petrarch and the French of
Ronsard and others.

While Wyatt introduced the sonnet into English, it was Earl of Surrey who gave it a
rhyming meter, and a structural division into quatrains of a kind that now characterizes
the typical English sonnet.

The English Sonneteers

Sir Phillip Sidneys sequence Astrophel and Stella (1591) started the English vogue for
sonnet sequences.

The next two decades saw sonnet sequences by William Shakespeare, Edmund
Spenser, Michael Drayton, Samuel Daniel, Fulke Greville, William Drummond of
Hawthorden and many others.

Introduction to Shakespearean Sonnets

Shakespeare's sonnets are a collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with different themes
such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality.

Shakespearean sonnets first published in a 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-

SPEARES SONNETS.

Sonnets were all essentially inspired by the Petrarchan tradition, and generally were
expressing the poet's love for some woman, when Shakespeare introduced an exception
with his154 sonnets.

The English sonnets are is often named after Shakespeare, not because he was the first
to write in this form but because he became its most famous practitioner.

Shakespeares sonnets were likely composed over an extended period from 1592 to
1598, the year in which Francis Mares referred to Shakespeare's "sugared sonnets.
After ten years, in 1609 Thomas Thorpe published Shakespeare's sonnets including The
Passionate Pilgrim.

The sonnets were dedicated to a W. H., whose identity remains a mystery, although
William Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke, is frequently suggested because Shakespeare's
First Folio (1623) was also dedicated to him.

The Structure of Shakespearean Sonnets

The form consists of fourteen lines structured as three quatrains and a couplet.

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 of the Structure of Shakespearean Sonnets

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? A

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: B

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A

And summer's lease hath all too short a date: B

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines C

and often is his gold complexion dimmed; D

And every fair from fair sometimes declines, C

By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed; D

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, E

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; F

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade, E

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: F

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, G

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. G

From Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Controversies Of Shakespeares Sonnets

When the Bacon supporter raised the controversy if it was Bacon (1564-1616) who
wrote the sonnets, Francis Mares, a clergyman (1565- 1647) confirmed through his
article in 1598 that It was Shakespeare, who was circulating his sonnets amongst his
close friends during this period.

he wrote: the sweete wittie soule of Ouid liues in mellifluous and hony-
toungued Shakespeare, witness his sugared Sonnets among his private friends

Most critics agree that Shakespeares sonnets were printed without his consent because
the 1609 text seems to be based on an incomplete or draft copy of the poems. The text
is riddled with errors and some believe that certain sonnets are unfinished which proves
that t was first appeared in print in an unauthorized edition by Thomas Thorpe.

The dedication in the frontispiece of the 1609 edition has sparked controversy among
Shakespeare historians and critics. It says:

To the only begetter of these ensuing sonnets Mr. W.H. all happiness and that eternity
promised by our ever-lasting poet wisheth thewell-wishing adventurer in setting forth.
T.T.

Although the dedication was written by Thomas Thorpe the publisher, indicated by his
initials at the end of the dedication, the identity of the begetter is still unclear.

There are three main theories regarding the true identity of Mr. W.H. as follows:

1.Mr. W.H. is a misprint for Shakespeares initials. It should read either Mr. W.S. or
Mr. W.Sh.

2.Mr. W.H. refers to the person that obtained the manuscript for Thorpe.

3.Mr. W.H. refers to the person that inspired

Shakespeare to write the sonnets. Many candidates have been proposed including:

William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke to whom Shakespeare later dedicated his First Folio

Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton to whom Shakespeare had dedicated some of

his narrative poems.

The Theme of The Shakespearean Sonnet

At this juncture in the cycle, several of the sonnets imply that the poet's beloved has
either left him for another or that the poet's affection has not been returned by the
young man.

It is of (possible) significance that in Sonnet 40 et seq. the young man is accused of

having stolen the poet's own (and presumably female) lover, who may be the Dark Lady
of Sonnets 127 through 154.
The first seventeen poems of Shakespeare's sonnets express the speaker's unqualified
love for a young man whose youthful beauty is praised in exquisite lyrics. In these
opening pieces, the speaker entreats his friend to marry and to have children so that his
extraordinary beauty will be perpetuated.

Starting with the famous Sonnet 18, the poet begins to speak of the corrosive effects of
time upon youthful beauty and of his beloved's need to have his beauty immortalized in
the poet's own verse.

The Ravages of Time :Shakespeare's sonnets open with an earnest plea from the
narrator to the fair lord, begging him to find a woman to bear his child so that his beauty
might be preserved for posterity.

Platonic Love vs. Carnal Lust :The divide between the fair lord sonnets and the dark
lady sonnets is also a divide between two forms of interpersonal attraction. The lack of
explicit sexual imagery in the fair lord sonnets has led most scholars to characterize this
infatuation as an example of Platonic love, i.e., a form of amorous affection bereft of any
sexual element. Meanwhile, the dark lady sonnets are replete with sexual imagery,
implying an attraction based largely on carnal lust. The poet seems to glorify the former
while condemning the latter; his heart is at odds with his libido.

Selfishness and Greed :The themes of selfishness and greed are prevalent
throughout the sonnets as a whole, emerging most perceptibly in the narrator's
hypocritical expectation of faithfulness from the fair lord and the dark lady. The poet
seems at times to advance a double standard on the issue of faithfulness: he is unfaithful
himself, yet he condemns, is even surprised by, the unfaithfulness of others.

Self-Deprecation and Inadequacy :Self-deprecatorylanguage frequently appears

regarding the poet's various inadequacies, in particular his ability to keep his fair lord's
interest

Homoerotic Desire: Although a fair number of scholars argue that the sonnets do not
reflect any intimation of homosexual desire whatsoever on the part of the narrator,
others find sonnets 1-126 rife with homoerotic undertones--at times appearing as explicit
expressions of the narrator's love for the fair lord.

Financial Bondage: Throughout the sonnets there is considerable imagery of financial

debt and obligation, bondage and transaction. Many scholars are convinced that the fair
lord is not only the object of the poet's affection but also his financial benefactor. Such
speculation has led to the identification of the fair lord with the begetter of the sonnets,
Mr. W. H. Although this argument is difficult to prove, it certainly has its merits.

Color Symbolism :This theme emerges most palpably in the dark lady sonnets, where
the poet's repeated use of the color black to describe the dark lady's features, both
physical and intangible, ascribes her with the evilness or "otherness" that the color has
often symbolized in the Western mentality. However, color imagery is present in the fair
lord sonnets as well, especially in conjunction with the theme of passing time.
Conclusion

To cover all the subject matter of Shakespeares Sonnet in a fifteen minutes seminar
presentation is difficult. According to Mathew Arnold, all poetry or rather all literature is
essentially or intrinsically a criticism of life. Shakespeare sonnets also contributes to a
better and fuller understanding of human life that leads us to a clear, closer knowledge
of things that provides spiritual illumination.

Work Cited

1.J. Fuller. The Oxford Book of Sonnets. Oxford University Press, 2002. Print.

2.J. Phelan. The Nineteenth Century Sonnet. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.print.

3.Lever, J.W. The Elizabethan Love Sonnet. London: Barnes & Noble, 1968. Print.

4.<http:// www.shaespeare- online.com/sonnets/sonnetthemes.html>

5.Rolfe, W. J, Ed. Are Shakespeares Sonnets Autobiographical? From Shakespeares

Sonnets.

New York: American Book Company, 1905. Shakespeare online. 20 August 2009.