IES N28 OLGA COSSETTINI

LITERATURE I

Practical Work on Sonnets

Teacher: Ana Laura Martinez

Students: Magnoni, Bianca.

Morelli, Rocio Belen.
Selle, Melisa.
Zanini, Maria Clara.

Teachers Training Course.

Second year, Morning shift.

Year: 2017
 THE SONNET Group assignment

Deadline: AUGUST 28th

Work in groups no larger than four students and research on:

1-Definition.

2-State the origins of this form.

3-Mention its basic characteristics in relation to form and meaning.

4-How/When was the sonnet introduced in England. Who did it?

5-State the differences between the English sonnet and the original form. What
particular issue about the language seemed to have brought about these
differences?

6-List the most popular sonneteers in the English language. (both forms).
1-Definition.
The word sonnet is derived from the Italian word sonetto. It means a small or little
song or lyric. In poetry, a sonnet has 14 fourteen lines and is written in iambic
pentameter. Each line has 10 syllables. It has a specific rhyme scheme and a volta
or a specific turn. Generally, sonnets are divided into different groups based on the
rhyme scheme they follow. The rhymes of a sonnet are arranged according to a
certain rhyme scheme.

2-State the origins of this form.

The Renaissance was, in Europe, the Age of the Sonnets. The Sonnet appeared first
in the Sicilian court of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor between 1208 and 1250,
and Giacomo Da Lentini is a writer who is usually credited with its invention. From
Sicily, it went to Italy, and it was the Italian writer Francesco Petrarch who strongly
contributed to make it popular. Between 1530 and 1650 there were in Italy, France,
Germany and England, about 3,000 writers who produced 200,000 sonnets and to
this we have to add the Spanish writers and the considerable number of sonnets
they wrote until well into the seventeenth century.

3-Mention its basic characteristics in relation to form and meaning.

Petrarchan or Italian sonnet.
The Petrarchan or Italian sonnet is the first sonnet and one of the most popular. It is
a fourteen-line poem that uses iambic pentameter (i.e. each line contains five iambs
or a weak syllable followed by a strong syllable such as the word aRISE or the
phrase the NIGHT) and a somewhat flexible rhyme scheme. It is most important to
state that the form of this sonnet is suitable for the Italian language and vocabulary.
The Petrarchan sonnet follow a defined rhyme scheme. It is divided into two stanzas
(or groups): the octave: made up of 8 lines, typically introduces the theme or problem
using a rhyme scheme (the order in which the rhyme occurs) of abba abba; and the
sestet: made up of 6 final lines, and provides the resolution for the poem; since it is
more flexible than the octave there are different variations of rhyme schemes and the
most common are cdecde, cdcdcd, cddcdd, cddece. This makes a total of 14 lines. A
clear example can clarify this:
William Wordsworth's "London, 1802"
Octave - introduces the theme or problem
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: - A
England hath need of thee: she is a fen - B
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, - B
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, - A
Have forfeited their ancient English dower - A
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; - B
Oh! raise us up, return to us again; - B
 And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. - A
Sestet - solves the problem
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; - C
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: - D
So didst thou travel on life's common way , - E
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart - C
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, - D
The lowliest duties on herself did lay. - E
Now, a further description of the functions of the octave and the sestet (in the
Petrarchan sonnet) is going to be explained. As it was stated above, the octave's
purpose is to introduce a problem, express a desire, reflect on reality, or otherwise
present a situation that causes doubt or a conflict within the speaker's soul and
inside an animal and object in the story. It usually does this by introducing the
problem within its first quatrain (unified four-line section, a complete stanza) and
developing it in the second. The beginning of the sestet is known as the volta (or
turn, is a rhetorical shift or dramatic change in thought and/or emotion), and it
introduces a pronounced change in tone in the sonnet; the change in rhyme scheme
marks the turn. This turn marks a shift in the direction of the foregoing argument or
narrative, turning the sestet into the vehicle for the counterargument, clarification, or
whatever answer the octave demands. The purpose of the sestet as a whole is to
make a comment on the problem or to apply a solution to it. Petrarch's own sonnets
almost never had a rhyming couplet (two lines that rhyme and have the same metre)
at the end as this would suggest logical deduction instead of the intended rational
correlation of the form.
We believe that it is important to state that, even though the Petrarchan sonnet is
considered to be the original form, poets adopting its form often adapt it to their own
ends to create various effects. These poets do not necessarily restrict themselves to
the metrical or rhyme schemes of the traditional Petrarchan form. Whatever the
changes made by poets exercising artistic license, no "proper" Italian sonnet has
more than five different rhymes in it.

Meaning: Petrarchan sonnets make use of elaborate and emotive descriptions and
superlative imagery. They portrait a lover and the background of the picture is
entirely covered with flames. This suggests that the man is being portrayed as a
lover who is burning because, as Petrarchan rhetoric dictates, love is fire and
passion burns. In Petrarchan sonnets, lovers usually lament their sad fate, which is
to love without being loved in return. Some Petrarchan conventions include an
idealized mistress, who is often absent or unavailable and emotionally distant or
cruel, whereas the poet is of a lesser status. Therefore, the Petrarchan lover, is
represented as someone who burns in his own unrequited passion while the woman
who is loved is chaste, virtuous and unattainable. Other topoi or commonplaces of
Petrarchism are: unrequited love; the lover who cannot stop loving even though he is
burning in his own passion, love as pain; love as passion stronger than will; the lover
who is chained to his love; the lovers fidelity to his lady; the use of oxymoron (love is
a freezing fire); love as labyrinth and the power of love to transcend death: love is
stronger than death, love is immortal.

Shakespearean or English sonnet:

The Shakespearean sonnet has the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, forming
three quatrains (four lines in a group) and a closing couplet (two rhymed lines). The
problem is usually developed in the first three quatrains, each quatrain with a new
idea growing out of the previous one. Sometimes the first two quatrains are devoted
to the same thought, resembling the octave of the Petrarchan sonnet, and followed
by a similar volta. Most strikingly unlike the Petrarchan version, the Shakespearean
sonnet is brought to a punchy resolution in the epigrammatic final couplet.
An example of the English sonnet:

Sonnet 130
(a) My Mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
(b) Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
(a) If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
(b) If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

(c) I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

(d) But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
(c) And in some perfumes is there more delight
(d) There in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

(e) I love to hear her speak; yet well I know

(f) That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
(e) I grant I never saw a goddess go;
(f) My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground

(g) Any yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

(g) As any she belied with false compare.

The Spenserian sonnet is a variation of the English sonnet with the rhyme scheme
ABAB BCBC CDCD EE, in which the quatrains are linked by a continuation of one
end-rhyme from the previous quatrain.

Meaning: The traditional subject of the sonnet has primarily been love. However,
Shakespeare mocked the standard worshipful attitude of the Petrarchan sonnet.
Development of the English sonnet led to consideration of other topics, including
mortality, mutability, politics, and writing itself.
 4-How/When was the sonnet introduced in England. Who did it?
Sir Thomas Wyatt was a 16th-century English politician, ambassador, and lyric poet.
He is credited with introducing the sonnet into English literature, alongside with his
friend Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey.
A significant amount of Wyatts literary output consists of translations and imitations
of sonnets by the Italian poet Petrarch, and he also wrote sonnets of his own. He
took subject matter from Petrarch's sonnets, but his rhyme schemes make a
significant departure. Petrarch's sonnets consist of an "octave", rhyming abba abba,
followed, after a turn (volta) in the sense, by a "sestet" with various rhyme schemes.
Wyatt employs the Petrarchan octave, but his most common sestet scheme is cddc
ee. This marks the beginnings of an exclusively "English" contribution to sonnet
structure, that is three quatrains and a closing couplet.
Together, Wyatt and Surrey, due to their excellent translations of Petrarch's sonnets,
are known as "Fathers of the English Sonnet". While Wyatt introduced the sonnet
into English, it was Surrey who gave them the rhyming meter and the division into
quatrains that now characterises the sonnets variously named English, Elizabethan
or Shakespearean sonnets.

5-State the differences between the English sonnet and the original form. What
particular issue about the language seemed to have brought about these
differences?

Both the Petrarchan and the English sonnet differ greatly within their forms while still
considered the same type of poem. So as to explain the origin of this difference,
some history is needed. Henry Howard, a contemporary of Wyatts (whose own
translations of Petrarch are considered most faithful to the original form, though they
were less fine to the ear) modified the Petrarchan, thus establishing the structure
that became known as the Shakespearean sonnet. This structure has been noted to
lend itself much better to the comparatively rhyme-poor English language.

They mostly differ from each other in terms of structure. While the Petrarchan sonnet
is divided into two parts (the octave and the sestet), the Elizabethan or English
sonnet is divided into three four-line stanzas called quatrains, along with a final two-
line couplet. In the former type of sonnet the volta is located at the ninth line, just
after the eight-line octave. As it was mentioned above, it is often signified by a
transitional word or phrase like thus or but or and yet as the sestet resolves the
ideas found in the octave. The English sonnet usually saves its turn for the transition
between the third stanza and the final couplet, which is the same place as the one
where the volta takes place. Sometimes though, the turn may not happen until the
couplet. The suddenness of the turn at the end makes this sonnet more uneven than
a Petrarchan one. Moreover, the Petrarchan sonnet also has a unique rhyme
scheme, since identical letters indicate a final rhymed syllable. Last but not least, the
specificity of the Petrarchan rhyme scheme works very well with the Italian language
as it has the ability to rhyme far more freely than is usually possible in English. In
comparison, the Shakespearean sonnet relies heavily on the final couplet which
often expounds upon, refutes, or otherwise illuminates the first 10 lines of the sonnet.

Because English, as a language, is notoriously difficult to rhyme in, it was inevitable

that a sonnet form would develop that was more suitable to the Germanic language
group. Italic languages with their plethora of vowel endings & suffixes are more
conducive to rhyming. The form that developed had three quatrains & ended with a
rhyming or heroic couplet. This all seems fine on the face of it, but the type has
problems of its own. With a rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, it seemed to
make it easier for the placement of the volta after the second quatrain. One of the
predicaments of this is that you may not be able to say everything you wish before
getting to the last couplet. This can give the impression of trying to cram an idea in at
the last minute. At the very least it can make the sonnet look a little hurried. Even
some of Shakespeares sonnets do not always seem to work when they get to that
crucial ending couplet. For example:

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 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.

6-List the most popular sonneteers in the English language.

Some of the most famous sonneteers in the English language are:
Sir Thomas Wyatt (He is credited with introducing the sonnet into English
literature. A significant amount of his literary output consists of translations and
imitations of sonnets by the Italian poet Petrarch, and he also wrote sonnets of his
own. He took subject matter from Petrarch's sonnets, but his rhyme schemes
make a significant departure.)
William Shakespeare (Shakespeare's sonnets. It is the title of a collection of 154
sonnets by William Shakespeare, which covers themes such as the passage of
time, love, beauty and mortality. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young
 man, which express overwhelming, obsessional love, and the last 28 to a woman.
In fact, the sonnets are Shakespeare's most popular works, and a few of them,
such as Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day), Sonnet 116 (Let me
not to the marriage of true minds), and Sonnet 73 (That time of year thou mayst in
me behold), have become the most widely-read poems in all of English literature.)
Sir Philip Sidney (Astrophel and Stella. It was the first of the famous English
sonnet sequences and was probably composed in the early 1580s. The sequence
was a watershed in English Renaissance poetry. Sidney partially nativized the key
features of the Italian model, Petrarch: variation of emotion from poem to poem,
with the attendant sense of an ongoing, but partly obscure, narrative. The
philosophical trappings. His rhyme scheme served to free the English sonnet from
the strict rhyming requirements of the Italian form)

William Wordsworth ("London, 1802". It's an obvious call for help; the poet laments
the state of England, and expresses his fears about the health of the national
character. It's just a gosh darned good old-fashioned sonnet. In just fourteen lines,
Wordsworth manages to invoke his poetic forefather, sketch out his view of
England's character and inhabitants, and demonstrate to us just how skilled he is
with rhyme and meter by crafting a gorgeous Petrarchan sonnet)
Edmund Spenser (Amoretti. Spenser used a distinctive verse form, called the
Spenserian stanza. In a Spenserian sonnet, the last line of every quatrain is linked
with the first line of the next one. Many critics viewed Spenser as being a less
original and important sonneteer than contemporaries such as Shakespeare and
Sir Philip Sidney. However, Spenser also revised the tradition that he was drawing
from. Amoretti breaks with conventional love poetry. In the Petrarchan tradition,
the speaker yearns for a lover who is unavailable, as the love object is often
already married. Spensers innovation was to dedicate an entire sequence to a
woman he could honorably win. Elizabeth Boyle was an unmarried woman, and
their love affair eventually ended in marriage)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Sonnets from the Portuguese, written 18451846. It
is a collection of 44 love sonnets, which was acclaimed and popular during the
poet's lifetime and it remains so. She was initially hesitant to publish them,
believing they were too personal. However, her husband insisted they were the
best sequence of English-language sonnets since Shakespeare's time and urged
her to publish them. To offer the couple some privacy, she decided to publish
them as if they were translations of foreign sonnets. She initially planned to title
the collection Sonnets from the Bosnian, but Robert proposed that she claim their
source was Portuguese, probably because of her admiration for Cames and
Robert's nickname for her: "my little Portuguese".)
WEBLIOGRAPHY
https://literarydevices.net/sonnet/
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/sonnet-poetic-form
http://study.com/academy/lesson/petrarchan-sonnet-rhyme-scheme-format-example-
poems.html
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/sonnet.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wyatt_(poet)#Wyatt.27s_poetry_and_influence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Howard,_Earl_of_Surrey
http://www.rc.umd.edu/sites/default/RCOldSite/www/rchs/sonnet.htm
https://www.youngwriters.co.uk/types-shakespearean-sonnet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wyatt_(poet)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_sonnets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Sidney
https://www.shmoop.com/london-1802/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoretti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnets_from_the_Portuguese
https://osuasyoulikeit.wordpress.com/contexts-for-as-you-like-it/shakespeares-
sources/petrarchan-conventions/
https://shelleylinkerenglish.wikispaces.com/Petrarchan+Convention
https://www.reference.com/art-literature/differences-between-petrarchan-
shakespearean-sonnets-1a20d8f8ec7b699#
http://education.seattlepi.com/difference-between-elizabethan-petrarchan-sonnet-
6505.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY
The literary workbook - Clara Calvo and Jean Jacques Weber.