25/09/2020

THE SONNET FORM

The sonnet is a lyrical form of poetry therefore, it speaks about intimate feelings, problems, doubts.

In Europe it was first used by Francesco Petrarchan in Italy. Petrarch’s sonnet became the model for all future sonneteers. As the word shows the sonnet heavily realise on sound devices. There for, in the analysis of a sonnet it is a really important to consider the level of sound. That, together with the other levels of connotation, largely, contributes to meaning. The sonnet form is organised/arranged into fourteen lines.

The English sonnet is the result of the gradual transformation from the Petrarchan model to the English sonnet, which is generally called either the Shakespearean sonnet or the Elizabethan sonnet, because it developed during the Elizabethan age.

A poet writing a sonnet is compelled to write fourteen lines. Later he or she can choose between the Petrarchan and the Elizabethan model.

The privileged theme of the sonnet is love, not the regular love but the secular love.

The first English sonneteer, Thomas Wyatt, learned of the form during his travels in Spain and Italy.

GRADUAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE ENGLISH SONNET

Thomas Wyatt, who lived in the first hall of the XVI century, followed the Petrarchan model mainly translating. Petrarchan sonnets into English, but soon English poets realised that the English language was not suitable to the Italian model. Indeed, while the Italian language rhythm is based on syllables, the English rhythm is based on stresses.

This made the translation from Italian into English very difficult and it proved not appropriate/suitable to the English language. Therefore, Henry Howard, Earl of Survey, decided to transform and modify the structure of the sonnet. This is the way the Elizabethan structure of the sonnet was born. He transformed the Petrarchan model into a structure arranged/organised into three quatrains and a rhyming couplet.

Most of the time sonneteers belonged to the court, and they adopted the courteous love code. The one of the courteous codes referred to an idealised woman.