LECTURE 2

THE SONNETERING TRADITION

Soneto ---------- “sonetto” (italian word) = little song

A sonnet is a poem that has 14 lines, it is originated in Renaissance Italu and Petrarch. It was
imported into England in the 16 century by coutier poets and evolved into: 3 quatrains and a
couplet (4442)

Origins -------- Giacomo Da Lentini, invented in 1224 and 1230

The octave came from the strambotto which was an 8 line Sicilian form that wsa sung by
peasant (topic of love)

Traditional sonnets have been classified into groups based on a aprticular rhyme shceme.
Sonnets differ in many ways throught the years and have been changed with each author that
have used the sonnet:
PETRARCH WYATT SPENCER SHAKESPEARE

a a a a

b b b b

b b a a

a a b b

a a b c

b b c d

b b b c

a a c d

c c c c c e

d d d d d f

e c d c c e

c d d f

c d e e g

d c e e g

e d
LECTURE 2

THE PETRARCHAN SONNET

It is divided into two freuently contrasting units, and octave and a sested.

RHYMING: abbaabba cdcdcd

It reached England by the early sisteenth century through THOMAS WYATT and HENRY
HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY, the latter whom pioneered the modified rhyme scheme later
taken over by Shakespeare

THE SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET

The Shakespearean rhyme scheme (abab cdcd efef gg) divides the sonnet into three wuatrains
and a couplet. The quatrains can operate in parallel, represents steps in an argumento, or
contradict each other. The epigrammatic loncluding couplet can summarize, generalize, draw
appropriate inference contribute a new thought o even revrse the preeding argument.

SIR THOMAS WYATT

He is considered to be the poet who introduced the sonnet form into English. Like his mny
Elizabethan successors and imitator, Wyatt writes of the pagn of love, portraying the lover as
the victim of both an intemperate passion and an ideal but cruelly indifferent mistress. The
lover is exalted ns suffers by turns, is tossed between hope and despair.