Textuality » 4A Interacting
EComuzzi - Recap of the sonnet
by - (2008-09-24)
Up to Reviewing the sonnet form
The sonnet entered Great Britain during the Renaissance (the Renaissance was that period that followed the Humanesim between the fourteenth and the fifteenth century).
The word "sonnet" comes from the Occitan word "sonet" and the Italian word "sonetto", they both mean "little song".
It was born in Italy and then spread in Europe. So it arrived in England too. It was introduced in England by Thomas Wyatt who translated Petrarchan sonnets.
The structure of Petrarchan sonnets consisted of fourteen lines divided in two quatrains followed by two tercets. Using this structure the sonnetteers understood that there were some rythmical problem so they arranged the last six lines into a quatrain and a couplet and created the structure of the English sonnet.
In the first three quatrains three aspects of the same problem were presented and in the last couplet a possible solution was provided.
The themes used in the sonnets were intimate, personal problems, feelings, emotions, and secret loves (they loved spiritually a woman that had blond hair and light blue eyes, and she was unattainable).
Shakespeare's innovation were his addressing the dark lady and the fairyouth: he didn't write conventionally about love las did traditional sonneteers. He addressed his sonnets to a young man and a dark lady (a woman that had dark hair and dark eyes, that was physical and easier to reach than the sterreotype of the angel-like woman).
The word "sonnet" comes from the Occitan word "sonet" and the Italian word "sonetto", they both mean "little song".
It was born in Italy and then spread in Europe. So it arrived in England too. It was introduced in England by Thomas Wyatt who translated Petrarchan sonnets.
The structure of Petrarchan sonnets consisted of fourteen lines divided in two quatrains followed by two tercets. Using this structure the sonnetteers understood that there were some rythmical problem so they arranged the last six lines into a quatrain and a couplet and created the structure of the English sonnet.
In the first three quatrains three aspects of the same problem were presented and in the last couplet a possible solution was provided.
The themes used in the sonnets were intimate, personal problems, feelings, emotions, and secret loves (they loved spiritually a woman that had blond hair and light blue eyes, and she was unattainable).
Shakespeare's innovation were his addressing the dark lady and the fairyouth: he didn't write conventionally about love las did traditional sonneteers. He addressed his sonnets to a young man and a dark lady (a woman that had dark hair and dark eyes, that was physical and easier to reach than the sterreotype of the angel-like woman).