Textuality » 4A Interacting
Camuffo Francesca 4 A 2/10/08
COMPITO DI INGLESE
The sonnet, that is a lyrical form of poetry, developed in Italy thanks to Petrarch in the 14th century. In the following two centuries Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced it into England changing its structure. The Petrarchan sonnet was arranged into an octave and a sestet, both made up of two quatrains, which had the purpose to give to introduce a problem, and two tercets, which had the purpose to give some solutions. The Shakesperian or English sonnet was arranged into 14 lines consisting of three quatrains, that introduced many aspects of the same problem, and a rhyming couplet, that gave a possible solution.
Sonnets were usually referred to an unattainable woman, an idealized woman. Another theme was that of courtly love, that is the love born at court. For that reason the intelligent reader may understand that sonnets are not a popular form of poetry as were ballads in the Middle Ages, but they are written for the aristocracy, who were able to read and understand the language of sonnets. As a matter of fact poets used to write trough figures of speech, like metaphors, similes, etc.
Unlike traditional sonneteers, Shakespeare refused to write conventionally according to courteous love.