EARLY  ENGLISH  SONNETS

Petrarchan sonnet model consisted o fan octave an a sestet, the model was gradually transformed when it entered the British scene, to adapt to the English language and British reader. The progressive transformation was due to :

1) Sir Thomas Wyatt who mainly translated Italian sonnets from Italian into English (see and out);

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 couplet. Surrey's contribution to the sonnet is both thematical and structure. In a few words he tailor to the need of the English language.

But the most creative and innovative sonneteer was William Shakespeare. He was able to reshape the typical conventions of the sonnet (courtly love poetry) to create something new.
The sonnet consists of fourteen lines (it's organized into fourteen lines). In Petrarch sonnet the reader can recognize the typical structure of the Italian sonnet.

Passa La Nave Mia Colma D'Oblio - Francesco Petrarca

Passa la nave mia colma d'oblio
per aspro mare, a mezza notte il verno,
enfra Scilla et Caribdi; et al governo
siede 'l signore, anzi 'l nimico mio.

A ciascun remo un penser pronto et rio
che la tempesta e 'l fin par ch'abbi a scherno;
la vela rompe un vento humido eterno
di sospir', di speranze, et di desio.

Pioggia di lagrimar, nebbia di sdegni

10bagna et rallenta le già stanche sarte,
che son d'error con ignorantia attorto.

Celansi i duo mei dolci usati segni;
morta fra l'onde è la ragion et l'arte,
tal ch'incomincio a desperar del porto.

The first octave introduce the problem, creating a comparison between the speaker life and a sheep, travelling in tormented sees, at midnight.
The skipper is worried by private thoughts that are so sad that he seems not to care even the terrible weather conditions. He sighs, he has desires and hopes.
There follows the sestet where is pessimistic, sad mood are repeated: he weeps, he regrets life as well as he condition of the weather put his voyage at risk.
In the ending tercet the speakers hides his feelings in the same way as he cannot see the stars.
He seems unable to use reason and even worst 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 does not sound easy, but rather unveils difficulties, problems, torments that all together seem to make up the poet unable to come to an autonomal solution of his pains.