INTRODUCTION TO THE RENAISSANCE FORMS OF POETRY

Poetry is a literary genre and inside a literary genre there are a lot of form. The sonnet is a form of poetry.

As its name reveals, the sonnet relies on sound. In addition one must remember that it is a lyrical form of poetry: it strongly focuses on private, intimate feelings and emotions, it follows that it is generally a personal forma of poetry. Lyrical forms of poetry implies clearly lyric, that is something connected to music.

Where was the sonnet born and how did it develop in time is the focus of today lesson.

The sonnet from was born in Italy thanks to Mr. Petrarch (1304 – 1374).

If we consider structure we can see that the Petrarchan sonnet consists on an octave and a sestet. The octave consists of two quatrains and the sestet consists of two tercets.  

The rhyme scheme of the Italian sonnet is : ABAB ABAB and so on. What matters in terms of sound is that sound plays a very important function: it contributes to add compactness to the poem.

Sonnets better than other forms of poetry uses a very synthetic and condense forms. However the sonnet is a complex form of poetry.

What is the function of the octave and of the sestet?

The octave expresses speaking voice’s problem, while the sestet expresses a possible solution.

Thomas Wyatt (1503 – 1542) keeps the structure of the Petrarchan model, indeed his sonnet is arranged in an octave and a sestet. The English poets who want to keep the structure of Petrarch’s sonnet have also to be faithful and to adhere to the Italian model and the function of that model.

But being the linguistic codes different, they do not allow to translate without little changes. Poets found it very hard to translate from  Italian to English, because of language differences.

The passage from one linguistic code to another implies transformations, since the phonological level must be rendered in a diverse language. Italian rhythm, for example doesn’t depend on stress, as English does, but it depends on syllables. Language must be adapted to rhythm and structure: it follows a reorganization of syntax and sound.

In order to find a solution to these problems, Henry Howard (1517 – 1547) transforms the structure of Petrarchan sonnet into three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. The reorganized arrangement will become Shakespearean model.