Textuality » 4A Interacting
From the available resources I had found the answers to some questions about the sonnet form during the English Renaissance. The name ‘sonnet' derives from the Occitan word ‘sonet' and the Italian word ‘sonetto', each recalls the sound level of the poem.
The influence of Italian writers had a strong impact on the development of English Renaissance literature in the 16th and early decades of the 17th centuries.
The two typical sonnet types are the Italian (or Petrarchan) and the English (or Shakespearean). The Petrarch's sonnet is arranged into an octave (made up of two quatrains) and a sestet ( consisting of two tercest). The octave was generally used to pose the problem and the sestet gave a possible solution.
The sonnet form was introduced into England by Thomas Wyatt who translated Petrarchan sonnets, so the first sonnets were simple translations from the Italian ones. On a second moment there was an evolution in the English sonnets structure by Surrey.
Surrey transformed the structure of Petrarch's sonnets into the English structure which became famous.
With Shakespeare(1564-1616) the sonnet evolved, so much that it came to be called the Shakespearean sonnet. The new module consisted of three quatrains(a four-line stanza) and a final couplet.
The function of the three quatrains was to present three aspects of the same problem, the final couplet gave an epigrammatic solution.
Through the sonnets Courtly poetsex pressed their love for an unattainable woman (generally she was nice, her eyes were blue and her hair was blonde) or explored various aspects of their own emotions. S
hakespeare refused to speak about courtly love so he dedicated some sonnets to his ‘fair friend' and some others to a ‘dark lady'.
