MB UNIUD

STRUCTURE OF THE SONNET

OCTAVE = 2 quatrains - it poses the problem

SESTET = 2 tercets - it provides possible solutions

Intimate, private, inner problems/conflicts/doubts felt by the speaking voice who is speaking in first person because we are in front of lyrical poetry.

The sonnet is a written form of poetry.

Sonnets became fashionable (= diventano di moda) because they probably expressed feelings that were rather widespread.

Values had changed in time and the individual felt the contrast between body and soul as urgent.

In the Renaissance the importance of the totally of the whole (completezza) of the human being.

You can see it in the triumph of the sculpture because it celebrated the human body.

Human nature presents conflicts when it cannot reach its goal (finalità).

What is the problem that afflicts Mr Petrarch?

Mr Petrarch is unable to find a balance between his religious requests and the instinct and feelings moved by his love for Laura. Therefore he voices his inner doubts in his sonnets.

This is the initial structure from which the English sonnet starts its process of structural innovation.

Petrarch's structure of the sonnet could not longer fit to:

• The structure of the English language
• The modes of the people of the period

Petrarch's model gradually underwent significant modifications and innovations.

They (the English) modelled their sonnets following the Italian structure of sonnet.

The first who introduced the sonnet in England was Wyatt.

He kept the octave + sestet model and mainly translated Petrarch sonnet into English.

It was only with the contribution of Henry Howard Earl of Surrey that the English sonnet reached its final definite structure.

Later in time it was modified the structure. Surrey's model consisted of:
3 quatrains and a final couplet