Sonnets Introduction

Sonnets

Jasper Jebamalar P.J.

I. B.Ed. English

What are sonnets?

A sonnet is a type of fourteen-line poem. The fourteen lines of a sonnet consist of an octave (or two quatrains making up a stanza of 8 lines) and a sestet (a stanza of six lines).

History of sonnets

• Before William Shakespeare’s day, the word sonnet could be applied to any short lyric poem.

• In Renaissance Italy and then in Elizabethan England, the sonnet became a fixed poetic form, consisting of 14 lines, usually iambic pentameter in English

Meter

A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables creates the rhythm of lines of poetry. The units of the meter are called feet. Feet have different stress patterns. For instance, an iamb is "a foot" with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (de-fine), while a trochee has the opposite: a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (Po-et).

Meter

Poetic meters are defined by both the type and number of feet they contain. For example, iambic pentameter is a type of meter used in many sonnets that contains five iambs per line (thus the prefix “penta,” which means five).

^{Rhyme Scheme}

Poems such as sonnets that make use of end rhymes (rhymes at the end of each line), often do so according to a repeating, predetermined pattern. That pattern is called a rhyme scheme. Rhyme schemes are described using letters of the alphabet, so that each line of verse that corresponds to a specific type of rhyme used in the poem is assigned a letter, beginning with the letter A. For example, a four-line poem in which the first line rhymes with the third, and the second line rhymes with the fourth has the rhyme scheme ABAB.

Types of Sonnets

• Italian Sonnet

• The English Sonnet

• Modern Sonnet

• Spencerian Sonnet

• Caudate Sonnet

• Word Sonnet

Subject matter in Sonnet

With few exceptions, Italian sonnets and early English sonnets are about unrequited love. Then, in the 17th century, John Donne began writing religious sonnets, and shortly thereafter John Milton began using the form for everything from satirical poems to more serious poems of soul-searching and reflection. In the 19th century, the sonnet's popularity among poets around the globe soared, such that by the end of the century so many variations had been made to the form that it was seen as well-suited to any subject matter. Today, as a result, sonnets don't have to take any particular subject as their focus.

Who invented the English sonnet?

Thomas Wyatt (who wrote poetry about his love for Anne Boleyn) and the Earl of Surrey both pioneered the sonnet in the English language in the mid-sixteenth century at the court of Henry VIII, some 200 years after Petrarch had first popularised the sonnet in medieval Europe. But it was an author named William Baldwin who wrote the first sonnet to be published in English.

Who invented the Shakespearean sonnet? 

The ‘English sonnet’, also known as the Shakespearean sonnet, is different from the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet. Although it comprises 14 lines the same as the Petrarchan form, the Shakespearean sonnet has a different internal structure, comprising three quatrains (four-line sections) all rounded off by one final couplet. The rhymes are also more varied, with the sonnet rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. The ‘turn’ in Shakespearean sonnets usually occurs at the start of this final couplet. But Shakespeare didn’t come up with this rhyme scheme: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey was the first to write sonnets like this. Shakespeare didn’t invent the Shakespearean sonnet.

Open Ended

What is a Sonnet?

Multiple Choice

How many lines are present in a sonnet?

• 10

• 18

• 14

• 20

Multiple Select

Which of the following is NOT a type of sonnet?

• English sonnet

• Italian sonnet

• Draconian sonnet

• Petrarchan sonnet

Poll

The last two lines of a sonnet are called a rhyming couplet.

• True

• False