The Sonnet Form

Poetry is a literary genre. The sonnet is a form of poetry. The sonnet, as his name reminds, greatly relies on sound. In addition one must remember it is a lyrical form of poetry. it strongly focuses on private, intimate feelings and emotions and it follows that it is generally a personal form of poetry. Lyrical form of poetry implies lyric, something connected with music. The sonnet born in Italy thanks to mister Petrarch. If we consider structure of the Petrarch sonnet it consists of an octave and a sestet. The octave consists of two quatrain, the sestet of two tercet. The rhyme scheme of the Italian sonnet is ABABABAB and so one. What matters in terms of sound is that sound plays a very important function. It contributes to add compactness to the poem. Sonnet better than other forms of poetry used a very synthetic and condense form. It follows that sonnet is a complete form of poetry. The octave present the speaking voices problem. The sestet express a possible solution. In ‘Pace non trovo’ the octave expresses the poet’s suffering because of love problem as confirmed by the capital letter in Amore at line 7.

Thomas Wyatt helps the structure of Petrarchan sonnet (it is the octave and the sestet arrangement). The English poet wants the structure of the Petrarch sonnet and also to be faithful to adhere of Italian model and function. Mr. Wyatt translates more or less Petrarch sonnets. Being the linguistic code different, sonneteers had big problem to cope. Henry Howard transforms the Petrarchan structure in three quatrains and one rhyming couple. Therefore, he maintains the space structure made up of fourteen lines.