Sonnet is a lyrical form of poetry.

To adapt something  to = adattare qualcosa

To come into, to enter = entrare

The sonnet is originated in Italy. Petrarch's sonnet model consisted of an octave and a sestet. The model was gradually transformed when it entered the British scene. To adapt to the English language and British rhythm. The progressive transformation was due to:

•1.    Sir Thomas Wyatt who mainly translated Italian sonnets from Italian into English (see handout)

•2.    Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who first reorganized the structure of Petrarch's model into the typical structure of the Elizabethan sonnet consisting of three quatrains and a couple. Surrey's contribution to the sonnet is both thematical and structure. In a few words he tailored the sonnet to the needs of English language.

But the most creative and innovative sonneteer was William Shakespeare. He was able to reshape the typical convention of the sonnet (courtly love poetry) to create something new.

The sonnet consists of 14 lines (is organized into 14 lines, is arranged into...). In Petrarch's sonnets the reader can recognize the typical structure of the Italian sonnet. The first octave introduce the problem, creating a comparison between the speaker's life and a ship travelling in tormented seas, at midnight. The skipper is worried by private thoughts that are so sad that it seems not to care even of the terrible weather condition. He says he has desires and hopes. There follows the sestet where his pessimistic sad mood are repeated: he weeps he regrets life as well as the condition of the weather puts his voyage at risk. In the ending  tercet the speaker hides  his feelings in the same ways as he can't see the stars. He seems unable to use reason and even worse to be able to reach the harbor.  It goes without saying that there is an apparent analogy between the poet's life and the voyage progress. Unfortunately, such life doesn't sound easy but rather unveils difficulties, problems, torments that all together seem to make the poet unable to come to an autonomous solution of his pains.

ASNWERS

•1.    The analogy life-travel is expressed by some rhetorical figures in particular by sound's figures. The bad weather indicates the problems of life and so the travel of the ship meant as the life too. The poem can help us to understand this concept by the use of particularly words: a rain of tears, a cloud of dark disdain...)

•2.    The function of the meteorological conditions is to  explain the poet's sad mood: the poem tells us  about storm, wind, rain and fog that indicate the poet's sadness and his difficult moment of life.

•3.    An intelligent reader can understand that the poem is only a pretext to talk something  else ( his sad mood) by some aspects. First of all, we can notice the poet indicates that the ship is own property. The ship is Petrarch and all the bad weather is disheartened on him. Another aspect is the use of the first person.