Textuality » 4A Interacting
The sonnet was introduced in Italy by Petrarch in 14th century and it was introduced in England by Sir Thomas Wyatt during the Renaissance translating some Petrarch's sonnets. The English name ‘sonnet' derives from the Italian name ‘sonetto' and the Occitan name ‘sonet', they both mean ‘little song'. It derives from the English name ‘sound' too, as a matter of fact it presents a lot of phonetic features.
There are two different structures of the sonnet:
1. the Petrarchan sonnet that is made of an octave( two quatrains) and a sestet( two tercets);
2. the Shakespearean sonnet that is arranged into fourteen lines with a specific rhyme scheme.
Shakespeare made some innovations into his sonnets, because he created a parody of courtly love poetry writing for ‘the dark lady', a dirty - bad looking woman.
The sonnet is used to convey images of love or nature. The poet generally talks about beautiful Ladies, he describes them and he expresses his love.
The sonnet presents some sound features such as assonances, consonances, alliterations, rhymes schemes, allegories, parodies, personifications or elegies.