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Delanie Wampler
Mrs. Hargraves
ELA 2
January 1, 2013
The Sonnet
The sonnet is an old, but timeless type of poetry. There are many famous sonnets and sonnet
types. Many writers have taken the sonnet and put their own personal touches on it, but have
kept to the basics. Many well-known authors and poets write sonnets. In fact, one of the most
well-known sonnets is the famous passage inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty (The
Worlds Most Famous Sonnet, barnonegroup.com). The Sonnet varies depending on the place
and frame of time in which it is written. The sonnet, the poem made popular by Shakespeare, has
many different types, famous pieces, and authors.
Traditionally, a sonnet is a fourteen line poem. It is written in iambic pentameter. Iambic
pentameter is a style that includes several rhyme schemes and has thematic organization. The
sonnet has compelled and interested poets for centuries. It comes from the Italian word sonetta.
Sonnetta means little song or sound. The two main sonnet forms that are the groundwork for all
sonnets are Petrarchan and Shakespearean (What Is A Sonnet, poets.org).
Iambic Pentameter is used in sonnets of any distinction. An Iambic pentameter is a meter in
poetry that has an unrhymed line with five iambs (or feet). Iambic means that the stress is on the
second syllable. For example on the word Good-bye it would be on bye. A pentameter shows us
that a line has five feet (or clusters) of two sylabes each. These syllabes add to ten syllables a
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line. When iambic pentameter is read aloud it would follow a beat such as Da-dum Da-dum
(Iambic Pentameter, reyeseng.org).
The Petrarchan sonnet is the first and most common. It is also called the Italian. It is named
after one of its greatest practitioners, Petrarch. It is divided into two stanzas. The first stanza is
the octave which is the first eight lines. The second is the answering sestet which is the final six
lines. The rhyme scheme is abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd. The Petrarchan poses an argument or
question in the octave stanza and a counterargument occurs in the sestet. Sir Thomas Wyatt
introduced the Petrarchan in England during the 16th century. His famed translations drew
attention quickly to the Petrarchan form (Petrarchan Sonnet, poets.org).
Petrarchs full name is Francesco Petrarca, but hes usually referred to as Petrarch. He lived in
the 1300s in Western Europe. He is regarded as the father of Humanism. He is known for
bringing to light the classic works of orators, historians, and poets of ancient Rome. He is also
known for being a spectacular poet himself. He perfected the sonnet in the 14
th
century, writing
365 sonnets to just one of his true loves. He wrote them about his passion and love for a girl
named Laura, whom he saw in a church (Petrarch, thenagain.info). Because of his curiosity in
individuality, Petrarch is considered the first modern poet (Petrarca: Love Sonnets,
Italian.about.com).
The second major type of sonnet is the Shakespearean. It is also called the English. It follows
a different set of rules from the Petrarchan. It includes three quatrains and a couplet. It follows
the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The couplet is like a conclusion and is very pivotal. One
of Shakespeare's famous works is his epic sonnet cycle. In one, he talks about a mistress and in
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the end the couplet swerves from the rest of the poem. He makes you think he doesn't like her,
however at the end he says he does (The Shakespearean Sonnet, poets.org).
William Shakespeare was an English playwright and poet. He is regarded as the greatest
dramatist ever and sometimes called the English National poet. There is not much known for
sure about his life with few legitimate records. Some people even think that he didnt write any
of the works he is accounted for because there is almost no evidence that he received a good
enough education to be so talented in literature. He wrote many plays and poems that were
widely popular in the 16
th
, 17
th
, 19
th
, and 20
th
, centuries. He has many sonnets in particular on a
wide variety of emotions such as love and tragedy. These sonnets are still popular today because
the words and feelings are timeless and memorable (William Shakespeare, biography.com).
Shakespearean sonnets contain three quatrains. Quatrains are four consecutive lines of verse
that make up a stanza. Along with the three quatrains they contain a couplet. A couplet is two
consecutive rhyming lines of verse. Dummies.com states, a sonnet is also an argument it
builds up a certain way. How it builds up is related to its metaphors and how it moves from
metaphor to metaphor. In a Shakespearean sonnet the first quatrain is an exposition of the main
theme and metaphor. The second quatrain is the theme and metaphor extended. Usually there is
an imaginative example given. The third quatrain contains a perpeteia which is a twist or
conflict. It is often introduced by "But" and it leads off the 9th line. The couplet summarizes and
leaves the reader with a concluding image (How to Write a Sonnet).
Shakespeares Sonnet 73 is concerned with love and aging. It is hailed as one of his most
beautifully written Sonnets. The speaker states that his lover will love him the more the older he
gets. This is because his physical ageing will remind him of the closeness of death. It is stating
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that his love is strong and enduring. This Sonnet is part of the Fair Youth Sonnets. The key
themes are Ageing, morality, enduring love, and seasons of love. It is written in iambic
pentameter and follows the traditional sonnet form (Sonnet 73, Shakespeare.about.com).
Sonnet 116 of Shakespeare is one of the best loved. It can be read as a wonderful celebration
of love and marriage. It continues to be read at wedding ceremonies worldwide. Sonnet 116,
expresses love in the ideal; never ending, fading or faltering. The couplet professes that if love
isn't like this then the writing was done for nothing and no man has truly ever loved. In a deeper
analysis the poem doesn't just refer to marriage itself. It refers to marriage of minds. Love in
Shakespeares time was not sanctioned by a marriage service ( Shakespeare.about.com).
Sonnet 18 is one of Shakespeares most famous sonnets. It is also one of the world's most
famous sonnets. It is one of the most beautifully written verses in the English language. In it,
Shakespeare captures the essence of love so cleanly. The opening line poses a simple question.
The rest of the poem answers this question. He compares his loved one to a summer's day. While
summer must always come to an end, the speaker's love for the man is eternal (Sonnet 18,
Shakespeare.about.com).
All writers should respect the format of the sonnet. However through time this format has
branched off into a wide variety of sonnets. The French sonnet is another type of sonnet. It is not
a main type, like the Petrarchan, or Shakespearen. Its rhyme scheme is abbaabba ccdede or
ccdccd or ccdeed. It is a kind of Petrarchan sonnet with a different rhyme scheme in the sestet.
The pivot or volta falls between the octave and sestet. French sonnets usually have 12 syllables
per line (Variant of the Petrarchan, reyeseng.org).
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The Miltonic sonnet, like the French sonnet is similar to the Petrarchan sonnet. However, it
doesn't divide thought between the octave and sestet. The line of thinking runs straight from the
8th to 9th line. This 17
th
century sonnet was created by John Milton. Milton was an English poet
and instead of writing sonnets about love he wrote them about politics and social issues for a
change. The Miltonic Sonnet uses the Petrarchan rhyme scheme. The pivot evolves slowly after
line 8 (Another Variation of Petrarchan, reyesen.org).
Another type of sonnet is the Spenserian sonnet. The Spenserian sonnet was invented by
Edmund Spenseras. In it, each stanza has a different idea. Edmund Spenseras wrote The Faerie
Queen. It has the pattern ababbcbccdcdee. It has a twelve and two line pattern. Most of
Edmunds sonnets began with yet or but in the 9
th
line, which usually indicates a turn or
volta. With this quality it is like the Italian or petrarchan sonnet, however there isnt actually a
turn or volta, that comes with the rhyme change (Edmund Spenseras Sonnet, sonnets.org).
Another form of sonnet is the anti-formal or meta-formal. The anti-formal or meta-formal
sonnet is unlike any other sonnet. They contain irony. They also contain reference to formality.
William Heyen created and anti-formal sonnet called "Forms from the Reich University. It had
irony based on the notion that Germans who perpetuated the Holocaust participated in a certain
culture. This culture had achieved greatly in aesthetic forms (Occasions for Irony, reyeseng.org).
Sonnets written in the Victorian period in Great Britain are referred to as Victorian sonnets.
According to Sonnet Central, Much poetry of the Victorian period is no longer very highly
esteemed. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is most likely the most popular of Victorian sonnet
writers. She wrote sonnets to her husband, Robert Browning, and they were called, Sonnets from
the Portuguese. Matthew Arnold is another Victorian sonnet writer and is best known for Dover
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Beach. George Meredith wrote a lengthy sequence of sonnets on the ruin of his marriage titled,
Modern Love. Thomas Hardy is known for writing sonnets from the 1860s and into the 1920s.
The irony and sensitivity in his writing almost defy the literary trends of their time (sonnets.org).
Sonnets written by Americans are known mostly in the 19
th
and 20
th
centuries. The first
American sonnets were written by David Humphreys. Being a revolutionary war general, his
sonnets were written at the end of the 18
th
century. They were not published until 1804, however.
The popular Edgar Allen Poe wrote sonnets during the 19
th
century also. Some other known
American poets who wrote sonnets in the 19
th
and 20
th
centuries include William Cullen Bryant,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Jones Very, Frederick Goddard
Tuckerman, and Emma Lazarus. The more obscure work by lesser known poets is typically
found in anthologies from the late 19
th
century (sonnet central, sonnets.org).
Emma Lazarus's New Colossus was not famous when it was written in 1883. When its author
died in 1887 it was not even included in her obituary. It wasn't famous until it was affixed to the
Statue of Liberty in 1903. The poem is so powerful it has changed the meaning of the statue of
liberty. It is a sign of a beacon to immigrants and a welcome to America. Emma Lazarus is
known as the Poet of Exiles. She was born in New York City in 1849. In 1866 when she was 16,
her father privately published her first book, Poems and Translations Written between The Ages
Of Fourteen and Seventeen. She died at the age of 38 (Statue of Liberty, barnonegroup.com).
The sonnet continues to engage poets today. Notable poets are Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert
Lowell, and John Berryman. The sonnet continues to get stretched and enhanced. The sonnet
changes so much that it can only be recognized by the 14 lines or by name. Recent writers of this
so-called Modern Sonnet" include Gerald Stern, Wanda Coleman, Ted Berrigan, and Karen
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Volkman. Hundreds of Sonnets are collected in the recent anthology "The Penguin Book of the
Sonnet: 500 Years of a Classic Tradition in English." Some classics are also included in this
anthology edited by Philis Levin (Modern Sonnets, poets.org).
In conclusion, the sonnet is a form of poetry that dates back to the 1300s. Although it is so
old, it is still being recreated today. A wide variety of writers have taken the sonnet and put their
own personal spin on it, changing it and making it their own. Even though it has been
transformed so many times it still keeps its basic structure and guidelines. The different forms of
the sonnet have been born from many different time-periods and poets. Many famous poets have
written sonnets. There so many different forms, writers, and famous pieces of the sonnet, which
is known for being made popular by Shakespeare.