MB UNIUD

The sonnet was born in Italy during the fourteenth century and later it was introduced into Great Britain by Thomas Wyatt during the fifteenth and the sixteenth century.

The first sonnets that entered Great Britain were translations of petrarchan sonnet .

The structure of the Petrarchan sonnet  consisted of two quatrains, where two aspects of the same problem were explained, followed by two tercets where the possible solution of the problem was provided.

But with the passing of time the sonneteers realized that there were some rhythmical problems, so then conceived of a new structure for their sonnets.

English sonnets were organized into three quatrains and a final couplet; in the quatrains the problem was explained and in the couplet a possible solution was provided.

the themes of the sonnets were intimate moods, feelings and secret loves.

The addressee of the sonnet often was a woman

She was a particular kind of waman because during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance people wanted to gain solution so they loved a woman that recalled an angel.

In fact such women had fair hair and light-blue or green eyes.

They loved this kind of woman because she was unattainable.

It follows that if men loved women with that features they couldn't be tempted as it happened in the previous period, because women of love sonnets weren't realistic.

In the previous period the women of ballads were tempters; them love seem as dangerous.

They were realistically described so men were afraid of them.

Only Shakespeare tried to communicate that real kind of woman that men could love was the "dark lady".

This woman was realistically described, she needn't have fair hair or light eyes.

In fact he described her saying that she had dark hair and dark eyes and men could speak with her, so she wasn't unattainable.