Sonnets Dawgonnet

A Very Brief

History of

the Sonnet

The term sonnet derives from the Occitan word sonet and the the Italian word sonetto, and both of these original words meant little song. Therefore, a sonnet was originally written as a lyrical rhyming poem, pruposely short and serving as a brief little verbal, song with the music being in the language rather than in a tune.

A Sonnet is a long recognized fixed form poem. In general you can say that almost all Sonnets are defined by having a specific meter (iambic pentameter) and a specific rhyming scheme (or pattern of rhyme), and consisting of 14 lines.

This description of the sonnet is too brief and does not really give a full account of the sonnet form.

There are Three Recognized Sonnet forms, differentiated by their rhyme scheme.

1. The Italian Sonnet (sometimes called the Petrarchian Sonnet).

While all three traditional formate sonnets had 14 lines, an iambic pentameter beat, the Italian sonnet can also be recognized by the way the sonnet is devided into two parts. The first part of an Italian sonnet is called the octave. This octave is composed of two quatrains, and the lines are used to describe some problem. The second part of an Italian sonnet is composed of a sestet (or two tercets) which solves the problem, or brings some balance or resolution to the problem originally presented in the first section. Often the ninth line of an Itlaian sonnet is the line the whole poem turns upon. The ninth line can be said to be the volta which signals the move from problem to solution; from proposition to resolution.

As is true of all poetry those dadgum poets just love to mix things up and add variety, so you just can't say all Italian sonnets do what I have just described, however, even if the poet has chosen not to strictly follow the "rules" the ninth line will almost always at least signal some sort of change in tone or mood within the Italian Sonnet.

The Italian sonnets are not as easy to write in English as they are to write in Italian, because Italian is an inflected languages where the word endings change based upon their grammatical usage, therefore you are just going to find oodles and gobs of more rhymes than you will find in English. This doesn't make it impossible to write an poem using the Italian sonnet form, but it does make it a little more challenging.

The first 8 lines is called the octave rhymes following this pattern:

a b b a a b b a

The remaining 6 lines (called the sestet) and can have either two or three rhyming sounds, arranged in a variety of ways:

c d c d c d

c d d c d c

c d e c d e

c d e c e d

c d c e d c

The Petrarchian Sonnet is not actually a different sonnet form, but refers more to the content or theme of the sonnet. A Petrarchian sonnet, refers to a concept of unattainable and was developed by and promulgated by Francesco Petrarch.

When I Consider How My Light is Spent by John Milton

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

Notice in the octave, the first 8 lines, that the poem presents a problem. The poet uses the word light, but clearly he is talking about how quickly life fades away. and is he using his time in a way that will please, or perhaps displease God.

Then in line 9 he begins to resolve the concern voiced in the first 8 lines, by explaining that God does not need man's work that God's will is done even when we stand and wait and do nothing.

2. The Spenserian Sonnet

A variant on the English form is the Spenserian sonnet, named after Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599) in which the rhyme scheme is, abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee. In a Spenserian sonnet there does not appear to be a requirement that the initial octave set up a problem that the closing sestet answers, as is the case with a Petrarchan sonnet.

Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser
One day I wrote her name upon the starand, .......a

But came the waves and washèd it away: .............b

Again I wrote it with a second hand,.......................a

But came the tide, and made my pains his prey...b

"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay,.....b

A mortal thing so to immortalize,............................c

For I myself shall like to this decay, .......................b

And eek my name be wipèd out likewise."............c

"Not so," quod I, "let baser things devise,.............c

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:.............d

My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,............c

And in the heavens write your glorious name.......d

Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,..e

Our love shall live, and later life renew."................e

3. The English or Shakespearian Sonnet.

Sonnets were introduced by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century. His sonnets and those of his contemporarythe Earl of Surrey were chiefly translations from the Italian of Petrarch and the French of Ronsard and others. While Wyatt introduced the sonnet into English, it was Surrey who gave them the rhyme scheme, meter, and division into quatrains that now characterizes the English sonnet.

Sonnet #18 by William Shakespeare

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 oft' is his gold complexion dimm'd;......................d

And every fair from fair sometime declines,..............c

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:..d

But thy eternal Summer shall not fade.......................e

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;...............f

Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,...e

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:...............f

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,.............g

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

There is a Fourth Catagory of Sonnet that does not fit the generally accepted parameters of most sonnet forms.

4. The Nonce Sonnet

The word nonce comes from the medieval expression for the nonce, meaning for the one time. Thus a nonce word is a word used for a special circumstance only. So a nonce sonnet would be a changed sonnet form created for one unique occasion.

Here is one of my own Nonce Sonnets

The Chanticleer by tex norman

At 50 I've begun a new career;..................................a

an avocation really, not vocation,...............................b
but more than something used to pass the time......c
The few who know are shocked to learn that I'm....c
absorbed, obsessed, that this is not flirtation...........b
I find that I've become a chanticleer.........................a
I can't explain what I don't understand....................d
What's happening does not feel like a choice............e
It's like my pen and paper kidnapped me,...............f
and they do not intend to set me free.......................f
No. It's as if I've finally found my voice....................e
No. I'm a soldier following command........................d
No, no, it's more like waking up in Spring................g
only to discover I can sing..........................................g

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it is at moments after i have dreamed a nonce sonnet by e e cummings

it is at moments after i have dreamed....................a

of the rare entertainment of your eyes,.................b

when (being fool to fancy) i have deemed..............a

with your peculiar mouth my heart made wise;...b

at moments when the glassy darkness holds........c

the genuine apparition of your smile.........................d

(it was through tears always) and silence moulds...c

such strangeness as was mine a little while;............d

moments when my once more illustrious arms.......e

are filled with fascination, when my breast..............f

wears the intolerant brightness of your charms:....e

one pierced moment whiter than the rest...............f

--turning from the tremendous lie of sleep..............g

i watch the roses of the day grow deep.....................g

Note that not only does Mr. cummings have his own rhyme scheme, but the meter is very loose iambic pentameter. I'll bold the stressed syllables to illustrate the variation:

the gen-u-ine ap-par-iti-on of your smile

(it was through tears al-ways) and si-lence moulds

such strange-ness as was mine a lit-tle while

5. Sonnet Sequences

The two most famous sonnet sequences are by William Shakespeare and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

For Shakespeare the problem was that because of the plague the government closed down all large gathering places to avoid the spread of the disease. Shakespeare had no plays to write, and with time on his hand started writing sonnets. Later these sonnets were collected into a book and readers noticed that these poems did not seem to stand alone, but instead, one sonnet seemed to be loosely connected to the others.

Scholars have poured over Shakespeare's sonnet sequence trying to put together some story and perhaps, pulling from them biographical details. From those sonnets some have thought Shakespeare may have had a mistress, and that that mistress may have been black.

The second most famous sonnet sequence is called the Sonnets from the Portuguese. The story behind this sequence is that every morning Elizabeth Barrett Browning would leave a sonnet on the breakfast plate of her new husband, poet Robert Browning. Mr. Browning called his wife a Portuguese because of her hair and skin color. Each of these morning sonnets was a love poem, and eventually were collected into a volume of poems as a record of her love for her new husband.

There are other sonnet sequences of course:

Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella published in. 1591.
Edmund Spenser's Amoretti published. 1594, 88 sonnets
Fulke Greville's Caelica published 1633, 109 sonnets
Shakespeare's Sonnets published. 1609, 154 sonnets
Lady Mary Wroth's Pamphilia to Amphilanthus published 1621, 48 sonnets, included in Urania. The only notable sonnet sequence during the English Renaissance to be written by a woman.

But there are new sonnet sequences still being written and published.

American Child: A sonnet sequence by Paul Engle
The Last Garland: A sonnet sequence by Theodore Maynard
Word from the Hills: A sonnet sequence in four movements by Richard Moore
One Another: A sonnet sequence by Peter Dale
Testament of Love: A sonnet sequence by Audrey Wurdemann
First Symphony: A sonnet sequence by Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer
Abraham Lincoln: A biographic trilogy in sonnet sequences by Della Croder Miller and Orville Miller
The Redneck River Valley, or American Gothics: An Elizabethan Sonnet Sequence by Lloyd Halverson