AN INTRODUCTION TOSONNETS
English IV – Dennis
What is a sonnet?
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Sonnets are poems that meet the followingrules:
1.
All sonnets are 14 lines long.
2.
Sonnets in English are written in iambic pentameter,which means that each line has 10 syllables,alternating in an unstressed/stressed pattern.
3.
Sonnets follow a predetermined rhyme scheme; therhyme pattern determines if the sonnet isPetrarchan (Italian), Shakespearean, or Spenserian.
4.
All sonnets are characterized by a “turn” located ata designated point in the sonnet.
History of the Sonnet
The sonnet began in Italy, where the poetFrancesco Petrarch first established it as aserious form of poetry. Petrarch wrote a largecollection of sonnets addressed to a youngwoman named Laura he saw one afternoon atchurch. She was not interested, but he didn’tlet that stop him, and proceeded to publishsome 260 sonnets about her—followed byanother hundred or so after her death. Petrarchis, quite possibly, the first recorded literarystalker.In these sonnets, Petrarch used witty plays onLaura’s name (l’oro=the golden one or thegolden; references to laurel trees, etc.) to bothhonor and attack the object of his affection. Hewould praise her for her beauty in one sonnet,then condemn her as an icy monster whorejects his love in another. Laura wascompletely unable to respond to these poems,as women did not write, and her public personawas thus basically Petrarch’s to define.
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An Introduction to Sonnets
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